John DiBartolomeo scored 37 points and added nine rebounds and three steals to lead Rochester to an 86-67 victory over the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in the semifinals of the Chuck Resler Invitational on Friday night.
Nate Vernon scored 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds.
Tyler Sankes scored a career high 15 points and grabbed six rebounds. Sankes and
Rob Reid made a pretty good combination in the post. Reid had eight points, five rebounds, one assist, and three steals in 19 minutes. Sankes hit 6 of 7 shots from the floor, had one assist, one block, and one steal in 21 minutes.
Reed Buck led Merchant Marine with 15 points, all in the second half. He was 0-7 from the floor in the first half as Rochester built a 39-25 lead. Andrew Williams scored 14 points and Zach Karczewski scored 13 for the Mariners (0-1).
Rochester will play Mt. St. Mary's College in Saturday's championship game. Mt. St. Mary's defeated St. Lawrence, 61-47. MSMC is coached by 2003 UR graduate Ryan Kadlubowski.
UR opened the game on a 19-0 run with DiBartolomeo scoring 12 of the points. Merchant Marine found its shooting touch and went on a 12-2 run over the next 3:37 to pull within 21-12 with 8:46 left in the half. Karczewski and Williams combined for nine of the points.
Reid made two layups, Vernon drained a three-pointer and added a layup around a bucket by Kenneth Pressey. That boosted the lead to 16, 30-14, with 6:21 left. It was 39-25 at the half.
The Mariners were aggressive and got their running game in synch early in the second half. With Rochester up by 16 after treys from Vernon and DiBartolomeo (they had eight between them), Frankie Wiseley hit a trey, followed by a layup and free throw. Reed made back to back layup and the Mariners pulled within nine, 48-39, with 15:44 left. A layup and foul shot by Karczewski cut the edge down to seven, 52-45, with 12:40 remaining.
DiBartolomeo set up Sankes for a layup then scored seven points in just over two minutes on five free throws and a layup. That got it back to 13. Merchant Marine cut it to 10 four more times, the last on Buck's layup with 5:48 on the clock (70-60 Rochester).
