The New York University men's basketball team completed a dominating weekend sweep of the University Athletic Association (UAA) preseason favorites, defeating the University of Rochester 74-50 on Sunday, January 15, at the Coles Sports Center in Manhattan.
 
Two days after a 16-point win over previously unbeaten Emory University, which entered the contest ranked #4 in Division III, the Violets (12-1, 2-1) topped the defending UAA Champion Yellowjackets (9-5, 0-3) by 24. The margin of victory was NYU's largest over Rochester since an 80-46 win during the 1993-94 season – the last year the Violets captured the UAA title.
 
Defense was once again key for NYU. The Yellowjackets entered the game with the second-highest team field-goal percentage in Division III at 51.9%, but the Violets held them to just 40.0% (18-45), including 4-17 (23.5%) from three. Guarding a Preseason All-America point guard for the second straight game, Ryan Tana again had a big performance defensively, holding reigning UAA Player of the Year John DiBartolomeo to 10 points on just 3-12 shooting.
 
"Ryan made him work for everything he got," said NYU head coach Joe Nesci, who was honored prior to the game for becoming the school's all-time winningest coach. "We played really well against two top-caliber teams this weekend."
 
Offensively, the Violets again had a balanced attack while getting the majority of their points down low. Four players scored in double figures, led by Kyle Stockmal's 14. Carl Yaffe and Andy Stein each netted 12 points, while Devin Karch pitched in with 10 points off the bench. For the game, NYU shot a season-high 58.8% (30-51) while outscoring Rochester 42-24 in the paint.
 
"We got ourselves going in transition," commented Nesci. "We ran the offense really well."
 
The Yellowjackets were the stronger offensive side in the opening minutes of the game, building an early 7-0 lead. But NYU quickly found its rhythm and knotted the score at 9-9 on a Kyle Stockmal four-point play.
 
An 8-0 run then put the Violets up 19-11, and the squad's first-half lead eventually swelled to 15. Rochester, however, closed the period on a 7-2 spurt to enter the locker room trailing by 10, 34-24.
 
The Yellowjackets got as close as seven early in the second half, but a 7-1 NYU run during which Stockmal drained a three and Tana and Karch each hit layups effectively ended any threat of a comeback.
 
Stockmal added a career-high-tying seven assists to his game-high 14 points, while Stein had a team-best six rebounds. Tana finished with eight points, three assists and two steals.
 
Nathan Novosel paced Rochester with 13 points. DiBartolomeo added four assists and three steals to his 10 points.
 
The Violets return to action on Friday, Jan. 20, for their first UAA road game of the season. The squad will face the University of Chicago, also 2-1 in the Association, at 8:00 pm central standard time.