The University of Rochester men's basketball team jumped out to an early lead and then was able to hang on to a 59-57 victory over the University of Chicago in a UAA conference showdown Sunday afternoon in the Palestra.
The Yellowjackets (13-7, 4-5 UAA) fended off a half-court shot by Chicago's Matt Johnson at the buzzer to hang on for the victory.
The UR men built a lead early in the game, using a 13-2 run to jump out to a 17-8 margin. Rochester was then able to maintain a comfortable lead for the remainder of the half. UR then was able to get a 7-0 run to close out the half behind two treys from
Nate Vernon and
John DiBartolomeo. At the break, Rochester held a 13 point lead, at 38-25.
Strong Rochester defense held Johnson, the UAA's leading scorer to just two points in the first 20 minutes. Derrick Davis was the top Maroons player in the half with five points and six points. DiBartolomeo and senior Nate Novosel each had double-digit points in the first half for the Yellowjackets.
The second half started with Chicago (11-9, 4-5 UAA) nailing two 3-pointers by Michael Sustarsic to cut the lead back down to single digits. Novosel then scored the next five points for Rochester to maintain the lead at nine for the next four minutes.
A Steve Stefanou conventional three point play brought the Yellowjacket lead down to just four with 8:40 remaining in the game. UR quickly answered with two buckets in the paint by Novosel and
Rob Reid to get the lead back to eight. Rochester ended up outscoring the Maroons in the paint by a 26-20 margin.
With five minutes left a Stefanou layup and Johnson's second basket of the game crept Chicago to within three again. Then a minute later Davis recorded a layup to trim the lead to just one, the first time UC got that close since 17:46 remaining in the first half.
After two jumpers by senior
Chris Dende and DiBartolomeo boosted the lead back up to five, Sustarsic answered with his fourth 3-pointer of the game to get the margin back to two with only 18 seconds remaining.
The Yellowjackets were unable to put the Maroons away from the charity stripe with reliable shooters Novosel and DiBartolomeo missing the front end of 1-and-1 opportunities. Chicago scooped up the rebound and called a timeout with just two seconds to play. That's when Johnson then missed his heave from beyond half court, sealing the win for Rochester.
Rochester was led by Novosel's 21 points and DiBartolomeo's 16 points and eight rebounds. UC was paced by Sustarsic's 12 points (4-5 3-pt FG), Steve Stefanou's 10 and Derrick Davis' 10. UR's Reid also added nine points and grabbed nine rebounds. After a tremendous weekend prior where he scored 85 points, UC's Johnson was held to just 17 points total in both Chicago games this weekend.
Both teams struggled on the offensive end committing more turnovers than assists (UR 20, UC 15 turnovers), with DiBartolomeo giving the ball up eight times. Chicago's bench ended up outscoring the UR reserves 24-4, with Head Coach
Luke Flockerzi only getting eight players in the game, compared to the Maroons 11.
The win was the 13
th straight UAA home victory for and 17
th straight home win in the regular season for the Yellowjackets who look to extend the streaks when they host Brandeis University next Friday at the Palestra.
