CORTLAND, NY – The University of Rochester men's basketball team held off a hard-charging SUNY Cortland squad, earning a road win by a 67-62 score on Monday night at Cortland's Corey Gymnasium.
 
The Yellowjackets (3-1) vaulted out to a big lead at halftime, sitting in front 44-27, only to see the Red Dragons (1-3) come all the way back to take a 1-point lead with under three minutes to play in regulation.
 
Rochester's Nate Sock drained a big 3-pointer to regain the lead with 2:05 on the clock and a clutch turnaround jumper from Logan Jagodzinski add some insurance in the final minute.
 
After Cortland made a layup with just 17 ticks left, the Red Dragons were forced to foul, sending Ethan McEachern to the line for a 1-and-1 opportunity. The UR senior calmly drained both free throws to regain the two-possession lead and after a Cortland 3-pointer miss, Corvin Oprea reached the final score, making an additional shot at the charity stripe.
 
Jagodzinski finished as UR's leading scorer with 17 points on the night. He added nine rebounds, making 7-of-14 field goals. Sock ended with 11 points and eight boards, leading Rochester with three 3-pointers. Oprea added 10 points.
 
Ten different players scored for the Yellowjackets in the victory, with Theo Murray providing eight points off the bench. McEachern had a nice all-around effort with 6 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 steals.
 
SUNY Cortland was led by Aaron Coston who had a game-high 23 points, also securing 11 rebounds for a double-double. No other Red Dragon player finished in double-figures.
 
In the first half, Rochester's big run was a 14-2 spurt that boosted a 5-point lead to 14 with 8:04 remaining. Nate Beitel started the stretch with five straight points, with Jagodzinski also sinking a triple during the run. Cortland went just 1-for-5 over the three-and-a-half-minute timeframe.
 
UR's strong play continued later in the half, scoring 13 of the last 19 points of the period to head into the locker room up 17 points, a game-high.
 
After intermission, Cortland saw four different scorers make layups inside to stat an early 8-2 run to get back within 11.
 
Back-to-back makes from Murray and Bennett Kwiecinski regained a 15-point lead for Rochester, and the lead remained double-digits for the next several minutes.
 
Trailing by 12, Cortland's rally began with about eight minutes left on the clock, aided by an 0-for-8 stretch from the Yellowjackets.
 
The 13-0 run featured 3-pointers from Coston and two from Gaige Armbrewster. The Red Dragons eventually came all the way back to take the lead following a pair of Coston free throws with 2:25 on the clock.
 
Sock stopped the rally with his triple off a feed from McEachern and Rochester ended up hanging on for the victory in its first road contest of 2024-25.
 
Rochester returns to its home court at the Palestra for two more games this week, hosting the annual Mark's Pizzeria Crosstown Shootout on Thursday and Saturday evening. UR plays St. John Fisher at 8 pm on Thursday before taking on Nazareth two days later.