Behind a combined 50 points from Abby Gress and Erin Lillis, the University of Rochester women's basketball opened its 2025 slate with a 10-point, 91-81 win over the SUNY Cortland Red Dragons on Saturday afternoon inside the Louis Alexander Palestra.
 
Lillis and Gress led four 'Jackets in double figures, with Lillis scoring a game and season-high 27 points, while Gress added 23, Franki Gomez tallied 11 and Bridget Miller turned in a 10-point performance.
 
Lillis got Rochester on the scoreboard first, breaking the seal with 7:38 to play in the first quarter and scoring UR's first four points on a jumper and driving layup at the 6:56 mark of the opening period. Joleen Lusk answered Lillis' opening salvo with a layup of her own, as the 'Jackets and Red Dragons battled back and forth in the early goings of the first.
 
Kaeli McAnally gave Cortland its first lead of the afternoon with a triple following Lillis' driving layup, while Jackie Funk extended the Red Dragons' lead to three with a layup on Cortland's ensuing possession. However, that would prove to be the visitors' largest lead of the game, as Rochester quickly responded with eight of the next 11 points.
 
Abby Gress got on the scoreboard with the first of three first-quarter threes for the graduate guard, knotting the score at seven-all before another three just shy of the four-minute mark made it a 12-10 UR advantage.
 
Rochester would then stretch out its lead to five with another pair of threes from Gress and Lillis, before taking a three-point, 20-17 lead after one following Mariah Huss' driving layup with just under a minute to spare in the opening quarter.
 
An 8-3 run bookended by threes from Gomez and Annelise Dexter made it a six-point UR advantage to start the second, but the Red Dragons answered back with a run of their own. Funk's three-point play at the 6:49 mark of the second cut the Yellowjackets' lead in half, while Bella Zingoni tied the score at 30-all with her triple just over a minute later.
 
But after Lillis and Lusk traded layups to again tie the score at Rochester went on a 12-4 to end the first half, forcing a pair of turnovers while knocking down five shots on the other end.
 
Gress got the run going with five-straight points, sinking a turnaround jumper at the 4:36 mark before completing a three-point play off Gomez's assist just shy of the four-minute mark. Deniz and Melis Alparslan then contributed a pair of buckets, stretching UR's lead to seven as Deniz scored off an offensive rebound while Melis picked up a steal and scored.
 
Gress then added two more points before the end of the run, scoring seven points over the 4:20 stretch to give UR a 44-36 lead at the halftime break. Both teams shot well in the opening two frames, with UR connecting on 53.3 percent of their attempts and 6-of-11 three-point tries, while Cortland shot 42.4 percent.
 
The 'Jackets' hot shooting would continue into the third, as a triple by Lillis stretched UR's lead out to nine two minutes and 15 seconds into the third, while Miller's layup from Lillis just 22 seconds later gave Rochester its first double-digit lead of the night.
 
Rochester led by as many as 11 in the third, 53-42 with 6:54 left in the quarter, before the Red Dragons made their run, scoring six-straight points and forcing a pair of turnovers over a two-minute stretch to cut the lead to five.
 
Two free throws from Lusk made it a five-point game with 4:40 left in the third, but Miller answered with a three, again assisted by Lillis, while buckets from Lillis and Deniz Alparslan over the next minute kept UR's lead at seven.
 
Cortland would cut it to four on McAnally's triple with just under two minutes left in the quarter, but buckets from Tia Poulakidas and Gress stretched UR's lead back out to eight, before Lusk made it a six-point lead, 66-60, headed to the fourth.
 
Lillis again got going to start the fourth, scoring the first five points of the period on a pair of driving layups, the second of which the graduate student drew a foul and converted the free throw to again give Rochester an 11-point lead.
 
Down 71-60 though with eight minutes left, the Red Dragons made another run, again pulling in four as they held the 'Jackets scoreless for nearly four minutes. Cortland turned Rochester over three times, using a 7-0 run to pull within four, 71-67, on Zingoni's layup with 6:04 to play.
 
And while Rochester went another whole minute without a bucket, out of a timeout following a missed layup by Cortland, Gress found Rylee Drahos for a clutch, corner three, as the sophomore notched her first points of the afternoon to stop the Red Dragons' run and bring UR's lead back out to seven, 74-67.
 
Kayla Campbell answered with a layup for Cortland on the other end, before Drahos found Miller out of a timeout for another key score, as Miller's three-point play and Deniz Alparslan's layup extended UR's lead back out to double-digits, 79-69 with 3:26 left.
 
One last grasp brought the Red Dragons within five, but Gress nailed a triple from the top of the arc with 2:22 left, and after Brooke Tillotson matched the three the other end, Gomez broke the Cortland pressure and found Lillis' for an acrobatic, driving layup and three-point play.
 
Up by eight with under two minutes left, Rochester hit their free throws down the stretch, sinking six-straight from the line and 15-of-16 for the contest to seal the 91-81 victory.
 
With the win, UR moves to 6-4 on the year, while the Red Dragons drop to 7-2, snapping their six-game win streak.
 
Lillis led all scorers with 27 points and added a team-high six assists, while Gress led Rochester with nine rebounds and two blocks. As a team, the Yellowjackets dished out 18 assists and outrebounded Cortland, 38-27.
 
For the game, Rochester shot 55.9 percent and 52.6 percent (10-for-19) from three, the fifth-best three-point percentage in a single game in program history. The 'Jackets' 93.8 free-throw percentage also ranks as the ninth-best in a single game in program history, while their overall free-goal percentage tied for ninth.
 
Rochester next wraps up its non-conference slate against RIT on Tuesday, Jan. 7 at 7:00 p.m. inside the Louis Alexander Palestra.