The University of Rochester men's basketball team mounted a big second half rally to close the first semester of competition on a high note, defeating Ithaca College 68-63 on Tuesday evening at the Louis Alexander Palestra.
 
Rochester, a winner of three straight, closes out 2019 with an 8-1 record.  Ithaca drops to 4-2 on the season with the loss, snapping a four-game win streak.
 
Sophomore Ross Gang paced the Yellowjackets with a career-high 19 points, stuffing the stat sheet with 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals.  Patrick Benka scored 14 points, including a few clutch free throws down the stretch, while Ryan Algier scored 13 points, had 8 boards and 7 blocked shots.
 
The contest featured stretches of hot and cold play from both sides, with the key run being the Yellowjackets outscoring the Bombers 14-2 over the last 5:03 of the contest.  In that run, UR did not miss a field goal and was 6-8 from the charity stripe.
 
Ithaca meanwhile, picked a bad time to go cold, shooting 1-6 while committing five turnovers in the stretch.
 
Rochester battled back from as many as 12 points down in this one, with the Bombers biggest lead of the night coming after a layup by Jack Stern to open the second half.
 

Ithaca held a nine-point lead at the midway point of the half and then was still up by ten with 6:48 on the clock.
 
Benka drained a three with 6:21 left to trim the deficit to seven and Gang followed with a layup 40 seconds later and UR was down five.
 
Skylar Sinon put the visitors back up seven, but buckets from Algier and Benka made the lead three with 4:41 left.
 
Ithaca's Sebastian Alderete made a key jumper on the next possession to regain a five-point cushion, but the Bombers would not score for the rest of the contest.
 
A Gang jumper tied the score at 63 with 3:08 left and a minute later, Rochester had its first lead since 19-16, when Kailan Lee made an old-fashioned 3-point play.
 
The teams then traded empty possessions until Benka made a free throw with under ten seconds left to seal the win.
 
In order to save the possession leading to the free throws, Trent Noordsij made key play to tap out a missed shot from Riley Thompson.  Lee then made a heads up play leaping out of bounds but first throwing the ball off an Ithaca player.
 
For the contest, Rochester shot 53% (27-51), including a blistering 65% in the second half.  Ithaca ended up shooting 38% (26-68) on the night and committed 23 turnovers.  On the glass, both teams recorded 36 rebounds, but 13 of Ithaca's boards came on the offensive end, leading to 13 second chance points.
 
UR started out of the gates lightning quick, leading 16-4 following back-to-back Noordsij layups just six minutes into the game.  All seven of the juniors points on the night came in the early spurt.
 
Ithaca responded to UR's hot start with a big run over eight and half minutes, scoring 24 of the next 27 points to take a 28-19 lead with 5:33 left in the half.
 
Thompson and Zach Warech each sank two 3-pointers to close out the run for the Bombers who ended up taking a ten-point lead, up 38-28, into intermission.
 
Four players finished in double-figures for the Bombers, led by Stern and Jake Mitchell who each had 13.  Thompson and Alderete each ended with 12.
 
Rochester is off for final exams and the holiday break and returns to action on January 2nd, playing at #1 ranked and defending national runner-up Swarthmore College.  Ithaca's next games come on January 4-5 at the Moravian Steel Club Classic.