PITTSBURGH, PA – A sluggish first half, in which the University of Rochester women's basketball team scored only 12 points, led to the Yellowjackets falling on the road by a 59-46 score to Carnegie Mellon University on Sunday afternoon at the Highmark Center.
 
The loss drops Rochester to 10-10 on the year and 3-6 in University Athletic Association play. Carnegie Mellon's solid season continues, with the Tartans improving to 16-4 and 6-3 in the UAA.
 
CMU's win is the second in the span of a week over Rochester, with the Tartans winning 77-52 last weekend in Rochester.
 
During Sunday's game, neither team could muster much offense in the opening quarter, with both teams scoring just eight points. Rochester was 4-for-18 shooting over the first ten minutes, while CMU shot 3-for-8 in the first.
 
In the second, it was more of the same for the Yellowjackets, with Rochester making just two field goals, scoring four points overall to push its first half total to 12.
 
Carnegie Mellon, meanwhile, righted the ship a bit during the second quarter, making three 3-pointers and six total baskets to score 17 points, leading to a 25-12 lead at halftime.
 
Out of the intermission, UR remained cold, seeing the Tartans increase the lead to 20 after scoring the opening six points of the third. Rochester's scoreless stretch extended nearly eight minutes spanning the second and third quarters, with CMU embarking on a 16-0 run during that time.
 
An Erin Lillis jumper broke the scoreless drought and kickstarted a 14-4 Yellowjacket surge which cut the deficit in half.
 
During the run, Lillis had six points, Abby Gress added five and Raquel Williams chipped in three.
 
Shortly afterwards, Gress scored seven straight points for UR, trimming the Tartan lead to seven in the closing seconds of the quarter.
 
In the fourth, the Tartans had an answer for every Yellowjacket push, with Isha Nambisan draining a clutch corner 3-pointer and Nicole Timko adding a big jumper to keep the hosts comfortably in front.
 
Rochester got as close as seven points down after Lillis hit a jumper with under five minutes to play, but the Yellowjackets were only able to hit one field goal the rest of the way, as CMU's defense held on for the victory.
 
Gress finished as Rochester's leading scorer with 19 points, but needed 21 shot attempts to hit that mark. Lillis had 12 points, 3 assists and 3 steals, with Williams leading the Yellowjacket reserves, ending at five points and eight rebounds.
 
Carnegie Mellon's Anisha Chintala led the Tartans with 21 points, also swiping six steals. Timko added 19 points and six rebounds while Savannah Gibbs scored ten points.
 
Rochester returns home next weekend to host Brandeis on Friday evening at the Louis Alexander Palestra, with tipoff set for 7:30 pm.