Some hot shooting, specifically in the second and third quarters, lifted the University of Rochester women's basketball team to a dominant 92-42 victory over Ithaca College on Tuesday evening at the Louis Alexander Palestra.
 
Rochester's 50-point win was the first for the Yellowjackets since defeating Oswego State by the same margin back in November of the 2017-18 season.
 
The Yellowjackets were powered by a career-high 30 points from graduate student Abby Gress. Gress, who is coming off her first career triple-double last week, finished Tuesday's contest making 12-of-18 shots overall and 6-of-8 from 3-point range. The graduate student added 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals and 1 block in just 23 minutes.
 
13 different players scored for Rochester (5-3) on the night, with sophomore Tia Poulakidas being the only other player in double-figures, ending with 15 points. Poulakidas had seven rebounds and was 5-for-5 from the free throw line.
 
Erin Lillis chipped in nine points, while Rylee Drahos added 7 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds.
 
During the strong middle half of the game, Rochester scored a combined 72 points spanning the second and third quarters. UR shot 23-for-35 (.657) overall in that span while making 9-of-12 (.750) from long range.
 
Both teams started out cold, with the score being just 2-0 after three and a half minutes in the first quarter. Two Lillis free throws and a Gress jumper pushed UR's early lead out to six, but Ithaca answered with back-to-back buckets to make the score 6-4.
 
Rochester's defense held the Bombers (1-3) without a field goal the final four minutes of the quarter though, using a 9-1 run to grab a double-digit lead after the opening 10 minutes. Gress' buzzer-beating 3-pointer made the score 15-5.
 
In the second, UR scored the first eight points to vault out to a 23-5 margin. Drahos drained a jumper before Gress and Claire Groenewoud hit back-to-back triples for the 'Jackets.
 
Ithaca got within 14 points at the midway point of the period, but were then held without a field goal again for a long stretch to close the quarter. Over the final five minutes, Rochester combined to outscore the visitors 16-1, taking a massive 29-point lead into the locker room.
 
Poulakidas powered UR during the late second quarter surge with seven points, while Raquel Williams added five.
 
The third quarter belonged to Gress. She scored half of her 30 points with a 6-for-7 shooting mark in the quarter, making all three of her 3-point attempts.
 
The Bombers finally got things going offensively in the third as well, scoring a game-high 21 points that period, but Rochester still was able to build on its lead with a 33-point output.
 
Rochester's 92-point output was the most this season and the highest since UR defeated Carnegie Mellon 90-64 in January of the 2022-23 season.
 
Up next, the Yellowjackets hit the road on Saturday, playing at Hamilton College at 2 pm.