Though they came within six down the stretch in the fourth, the University of Rochester women's basketball couldn't overcome a cold shooting night and fell to the 17th-ranked University of Chicago Maroons, 61-54, on Friday evening inside the Louis Alexander Palestra.
 
Rochester shot just 28.0 percent for the contest, 14-of-50 from the field and 4-for-14 from beyond the arc, and went nearly eight minutes without a bucket to start the second quarter. However, the 'Jackets battled back from down 18 early on in the third, cutting Chicago's lead down to 11 with a 7-0 spurt, before ending the quarter on a 7-2 run to make it a 12-point game at the start of the fourth.
 
Caroline Workman's pull-up jumper gave the Maroons their largest lead of the night, 37-19, with 8:24 left in the third, but Tia Poulakidas answered with a layup on URochester's ensuing possession, and after a turnover by Kate Gross, Bridget Miller canned a three.
 
After another turnover, Grace Corelli's layup capped off the 7-0 run to make it an 11-point game, 37-26 with 6:30 left in the third, and while the Maroons would stretch their lead back out to 17 over the next five minutes, a 5-0 run to the third, spurred on by free throws by Deniz Alparslan and Peyton Jones, got Rochester within 12 headed to the fourth.
 
Gross got the scoring started to start the fourth, but a 7-0 run over the next 2:35 cut Chicago's lead in half as Franki Gomez, Annelise Dexter and Miller combined to go 7-for-8 from the free-throw line over the next two-and-a-half minutes.
 
Annabelle Spotts put the Maroons back up double-digits with the next four points, but the Yellowjackets would force a pair of turnovers and hold Chicago to just one score over the next three minutes, as they pulled within six.
 
Claire Groenewoud got Chicago's lead down to eight, 56-48, with two made free throws with 2:05 left, while Miller's jumper made it a six-point game with 1:28 remaining after the Maroons turned the ball over with an offensive foul on their previous possession.
 
Kasi Samuda and Corelli then traded buckets to keep the lead at six, but despite three missed free throws down the stretch by the Maroons, Rochester couldn't come up with a clutch bucket in the final minute, and the Maroons secured the 61-54 victory.
 
The first quarter saw a pair of misses by both sides before the Maroons broke the seal, scoring the game's first six points before Miller got the Yellowjackets on the scoreboard with a layup just shy of the six-minute mark of the first.
 
Chris Sanders' triple stretched Chicago's lead to 9-2, before five-straight points from UR made it a three-point game. Melis Alparslan's triple with 1:36 left in the first brought Rochester within four, and the sophomore nearly beat the buzzer with a deep triple to end the period, but just wasn't able to get it off in time.
 
Chicago took a 13-9 lead into the second quarter and quickly opened up a double-digit advantage with a 10-0 run to start the quarter, holding Rochester without a bucket till Corelli's triple just past the four-minute mark of the quarter.
 
The Maroons led by as many as 15 in the second quarter before another three, this one from Gomez, pulled Rochester within 12, and Chicago would lead by 14, 31-17, at the halftime break, after Poulakidas and Alexis Clark traded turn-around jumpers to end the quarter.
 
Rochester drops to 9-10 (2-6 UAA) with the loss, while the 17th-ranked Maroons move to 14-4 (6-2 UAA) with the win.
 
Miller was the lone Yellowjacket in double figures with 10 points, while Clark had a game-high 12 points for the Maroons.
 
The Yellowjackets will wrap up the weekend with another ranked foe in the 15th-ranked WashU Bears on Sunday, Feb. 8, at 12:00 p.m. inside the Louis Alexander Palestra.