The University of Rochester grabbed 19 offensive rebounds and turned those into 19 second chance points in a 68-56 men's basketball victory over Carnegie Mellon University at the Louis Alexander Palestra on Sunday afternoon.
Rochester's win boosts the team record to 11-3 overall, 2-1 in the UAA. Carnegie Mellon is 4-10 overall, 0-3 UAA. UR is in third place in the UAA standings at 2-1, one game behind Emory and Washington who are both 3-0. The Yellowjackets are tied with Chicago.
Michael Mangan led Rochester with 15 points. Patrick Benka had 13 points, including three three-point field goals. Rochester's scoring was balanced – nine points from Jacob Wittig (and four assists), eight by Ryan Clamage (plus five assists, two blocks, and five boards), six by Alexander Gamble, and five points plus 10 rebounds by Jacob Urban.
Zach Howarth scored a game-high 17 points for CMU, including 3-7 outside the arc. Colin McNeil scored nine points, Seth henry had eight, and Ryan Maha scored seven.
Neither team could get its offense into a steady flow. CMU hit 32% from the field for the game (18-57) and Rochester shot 34% (23-67). The Yellowjackets had nearly identical numbers for each half: 11-32 in the first half, 12-35 in the second half. Rochester took half of its shots from outside the arc, hitting 11 of 34. Benka had three, Mangan, Wittig, and Clamage made two apiece. Tucker Knox and Chase Twine sank one each.
The Yellowjackets held a 49-39 edge on the backboards. Andrew Lundstrom grabbed nine rebounds for Rochester. Wittig had six – three at each end of the court. Knox had six, and Clamage pulled down five.
Trent Suddeth had eight rebounds for CMU. Patrick Ehland had four.
Maha sank a three-point goal from the right of the key to get CMU within 14-10 midway through the first half. Clamage answered with a trey from the right corner to ignite a 17-5 run covering eight minutes. Benka made a left post layup and sank a triple from the left corner during the spurt. Mangan ended the run with a three-pointer from the right corner, then made both ends of a 1-and-1 to stretch the lead to 31-15. It was 35-20 at the half.
In the second half, Carnegie Mellon cut the deficit to the low teens half a dozen times, but Rochester was able to answer. UR's largest lead was 19 on two occasions. Wittig sank a trey from the top of the key, just after Henry made two free throws (64-45 with 4:15 left). After Howarth sank a layup, Gamble hit 2-2 from the line (66-47 at 3:52).