The University of Rochester men's basketball team captured its second tournament title in as many weeks, winning the UR/Holiday Inn Rochester Downtown Tournament with a 64-56 wire-to-wire victory over Stockton University on Sunday afternoon at the Louis Alexander Palestra.
16th-ranked Rochester moves to 4-1 on the season, while Stockton drops to 4-2 on the year. The meeting on Sunday was the first ever between the two schools.
Junior Ryan Clamage earned tournament MVP honors, leading all players with 20 points in the title game, adding five rebounds. He also was MVP of last weekend's UR Chuck Resler Invitational, leading Rochester to the tournament crown.
Clamage was joined on the All-Tournament team by senior Tucker Knox who scored six points and added four rebounds and two blocks, one day after pouring in a career-high 18 points in Rochester's semifinal win over SUNY Canton.
The Yellowjackets got off to a quick start in this one, jumping out to a quick 10-point lead just 6:38 into the contest. The early burst was fueled by a trio of three pointers, by Clamage, Knox and Patrick Benka.
Rochester then rattled off its second 15-5 run of the game over seven minutes, building a game-high 17-point lead with 5:08 left in the opening half. Brendan O'Shea chipped in five points during the run while Jacob Urban added four.
Stockton's Zavon Johnson and Marcus Harmon each hit a three and Blake Rossell added two free throws in an 8-0 Ospreys run late in the period, cutting the Yellowjacket lead down to single-digits, but Rochester was able to fend it off, sending the teams to intermission with a 14-point advantage up 40-26.
Early in the second half, Stockton hit three straight 3-pointers, by Harmon, Steve Ferebee and Johnson, to quickly trim the lead to five, capitalizing on three UR turnovers.
The lead remained in single-digits until Clamage sank back-to-back trey's to pull Rochester back up by 12, at 51-39, with 11:23 on the clock.
Once again, the Ospreys refused to go away, scoring nine of the next 11 points, to climb back within five with five and a half minutes remaining on the clock.
Jacob Urban made two big buckets, including a 3-pointer to stop the run, giving Rochester a cushion it would not relinquish the remainder of the contest.
Stockton's Ferebee and Kelvin Tull led the Ospreys with 10 points each while Harmon added nine. Johnson and Kendall chipped in eight and seven points respectively and were selected to join the two UR players on the All-Tournament team. Johnson had 22 points in the Ospreys win in the semifinal, while Kendall finished the tournament with 22 points, 15 rebounds, 8 assists and 7 steals in the two games.
Rochester as a team dished out 18 assists on 24 baskets on Sunday, led by Jacob Wittig's eight helpers to go with six points. Urban finished with 13 points off the bench while Michael Mangan added 4 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals.
The Yellowjackets shot 41% from the floor for the game (24-58), made 10 3-pointers and pulled down 35 rebounds, 12 of which were offensive, leading to 15 second chance points. Comparatively, Stockton shot at just a 35% clip (17-49) for the game, also sinking 10 triples, while ending with 29 rebounds.
Rochester is back in action on Wednesday at Union College in a 7 pm matchup, while Stockton next takes to the court at 8 pm on Wednesday in a road tilt at TCNJ.