University of Rochester women's basketball opened the 2026-27 season with a 67-50 win over the RIT Tigers on Saturday afternoon inside the Louis Alexander Palestra.
Grace Corelli scored a game-high 23 points, including 18 in the first half and 5-for-9 from beyond the arc, one of just two players in double figures.
Both teams would struggle to find their rhythm in the opening frame, shooting a combined 7-for-30 from the floor in the first quarter and combining for just 21 points. Ben Kayser-Cochran got the scoring started with a jumper 36 seconds in, while Maddy Ramsgard put the Tigers up four with another jumper just over a minute later.
Corelli answered with her first three on URochester's next possession to get the Yellowjackets on the scoreboard, while Corelli and Caroline Henderson traded free throws on the next two possessions to keep RIT's early lead at one.
The 'Jackets took their first lead of the contest on another Corelli triple with 1:43 left in the first, but Kayser-Cochran answered with RIT's first three-pointer of the afternoon to give the Tigers an 11-10 lead at the quarter break.
Corelli and the Yellowjackets quickly retook the lead to start the second, with the junior's first of two made triples in the quarter giving UR a 13-11 advantage. Corelli and
Melis Alparslan combined for URochester's first 13 points of the second, as Rochester opened the second quarter with a 13-4 run.
Rochester turned a one-point deficit into an eight-point lead with the run, holding the Tigers to just four points over the first three-plus minutes of the period. Corelli scored five more with a jumper and a triple to stretch the lead to five, while
Melis Alparslan sank a layup and cashed a triple of her own to make it a 23-15 URochester advantage with 7:20 to play until the halftime break.
RIT answered back with a quick, 6-0 spurt to pull within two, cutting Rochester's lead to 23-21 on back-to-back Ramsgard jumpers, but buckets by
Melis Alparslan and
Tia Poulakidas, as well as two empty trips down the floor for the Tigers, pushed Rochester's lead back to six.
In total, Rochester outscored RIT, 20-14, in the second, shooting 47.1 percent from the field and 3-for-5 from distance.
Corelli added another bucket, and
Hazell Nickerson went 1-for-2 at the line to send Rochester into the locker room with a five-point, 30-25, lead, and the 'Jackets would pick up right where they left off to start the third.
After Nicole Melick got the Tigers on the scoreboard first to start the second half, the Yellowjackets would hold them scoreless for more than six minutes, opening up their first double-digit lead of the contest with a 12-0 run over 5:18.
Poulakidas scored the first eight points of the quarter for UR, sinking a pair of layups and hitting a pair of jumpers over a two-minute stretch to extend the lead to 11, 38-27. Nickerson and
Macy Bacon then sank layups to push the lead to 15, while after Caroline Henderson broke the scoreless stretch for the Tigers, Bacon knocked down a triple to make it a 16-point advantage with 2:43 left in the third.
Then, after
Zoey Seymour got in on the third-quarter scoring, Poulakidas added another bucket, this time a triple, to give herself 11 third-quarter points and stretch the Yellowjackets' lead to 18.
Rochester again shot 47 percent in the third quarter while holding the Tigers to just 4-for-13 from the floor, in addition to six turnovers, as the 'Jackets outscored RIT in the frame, 20-9.
With the first seven points of the fourth, URochester took its largest lead of the day, 57-34, on two free throws from
Deniz Alparslan. Corelli upped her scoring total to 23 points with another three-pointer and a layup to start the fourth, before both sides cleared the benches and Rochester cruised to a 17-point victory.
Clare Padamonsky got in on the action with five points down the stretch of the fourth, while
Laura Kosten beat the buzzer to make it a 17-point advantage before the final buzzer sounded.
With the win, Rochester moves to 1-0 on the year, while the Tigers fall to 0-1 with the loss.
Corelli led all scorers with 23 points, while Poulakidas had 13, falling just shy of a double-double with a team-high nine rebounds.
Melis Alparslan dished out a team-high five assists, while Nickerson had two of Rochester's seven steals.
As a team, Rochester shot 36.9 percent for the contest, hitting 8 of their 20 attempts from beyond the arc, while RIT shot 34.9 percent and went just 2-for-18 from distance.
The Yellowjackets will be back in action on Tuesday, Nov. 10 when they host Oswego State at 7:00 p.m. inside the Louis Alexander Palestra.
