The University of Rochester Men's Basketball team used a 20-4 run in the second half and held on for a 62-53 win over visiting New York University on Sunday afternoon in the Palestra.
The Yellowjackets (15-7, 6-5 UAA) got points from six players in the run that stretched nearly nine minutes to start the second half, extending the UR lead to a game high 18 points. NYU would battle back to get the deficit within four, but Rochester held strong for the win, extending their winning streak to four games, improving to 11-0 at home. The win is the 19
th straight regular season home court win for the Yellowjackets.
It was a low scoring first half, with neither team really finding a groove from the floor, with extended runs in the game where both teams went scoreless. A 3-pointer from Max Wein gave the Violets (18-4, 7-4 UAA) an 11-10 lead with nine minutes gone in the half.
Rochester would then answer with a 10-2 run that propelled the lead out to seven, 20-13. Freshman
Tyler Seidman nailed one of his three treys and senior
Chris Dende scored four points to fuel the UR rush.
At the half, UR would lead 28-26 behind scoring from seven different players. NYU would be led in the half by Kyle Stockmal and Andy Stein, scoring nine and seven points respectively. NYU was tough on the defensive end in the first session, recording a remarkable seven blocks, three coming from big man Wein.
The second half started with the big Rochester run to extend the lead out to 18, but NYU never gave up and answered with an extended run of their own. The Violet charge was a 17-4 run that showed the #16 ranked team in the country wouldn't go down easy. During the surge, Stein led scoring seven points while Wein added five.
After that run with NYU within five at 54-49 with less than four minutes remaining, Yellowjacket junior
John DiBartolomeo drove the lane and dished to classmate
Rob Reid who dunked the ball home, energizing the team and crowd back into the game. After that point, NYU got a 3-pointer from Carl Yaffe to cut the lead again to four with 1:15 left, but Rochester's DiBartolomeo got his teams' last six points of the game to seal the win.
On the day, Rochester's leading scorer was DiBartolomeo who finished with 13 points, 8 assists and 4 rebounds. The other players in double figures for UR were Dende who had 12 points and eight rebounds and Seidman who finished with 11 on 4 of 7 shooting. Rochester would end up outrebounding the Violets 35-26 on the game.
For NYU, Stein was the leader, scoring 17 points (7-17 FG) and grabbing seven rebounds. Stockmal was the other Violet in double figures, finishing with 10 points. Yaffe and Wein each finished with eight points. NYU struggled from the charity stripe in this one, only hitting 6-16 (37.5%) free throws.
Up next for the surging Yellowjackets is a trip to Case Western Reserve next Friday and then at Carnegie Mellon on Sunday, two important games for UR's postseason chances.
