A big second half advantage lifted the University of Rochester men's basketball team past visiting Elmira College 84-73 in the opening round of the Holiday Inn Rochester Downtown Tournament on Saturday evening at the Louis Alexander Palestra.
The Yellowjackets outscored Elmira 44-28 over the final 20 minutes and move to 5-0 on the season. UR will take on Montclair State in Sunday's Championship game at 3 pm. Elmira falls to 1-4 on the season and will play for third place in the event against Rensselaer. In the other semifinal on Saturday, Montclair edged RPI 76-73.
Rochester was led by senior Ryan Clamage who had a season-high 25 points, also contributing nine rebounds and four assists. Teammate Jacob Wittig scored 18 points and had six assists and four rebounds. Alexander Gamble added 14 points and seven rebounds of the bench while Ryan Algier scored 10 with six rebounds and three blocks.
Elmira had five players in double-figure scoring led by Justin Porrett who had 16 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. Shawn Backus and Jeremy Every had 11 points each while Henry Cuffee and Kyle McCreery each scored 10 for the Soaring Eagles.
The visitors got off to a quick start, opening the game on a 10-0 spurt over the opening two and half minutes. Both Cuffee and Porrett drained triples in the opening in minute as Elmira went 4-4 in the stretch.
A Clamage three stopped the scoreless run and after Algier made a layup with 13:08 on the clock, the lead was five.
Elmira then went on an 11-2 run to increase the advantage to 25-11 with 11:13 left in the half. The Soaring Eagles made three 3-pointers in the stretch, two by Jesse Adelson and one by McCreery along with two McCreery free throws.
Rochester scored the next nine points, seven by Clamage to again cut the lead back down to five.
Again the Soaring Eagles would build up a double-digit lead, but UR closed the half with six straight points, four from Michael Mangan free throws and a Patrick Benka layup, to head to the locker room down just 45-40.
In the opening six minutes of the second half, Elmira went cold, shooting just 1-9 from the floor, allowing the Yellowjackets to edge ahead by two for the first time following a Wittig jump shot. Gamble then put Rochester up four with 14:16 to play.
Elmira got right back in front following a Backus shot from distance and an Every layup, but Rochester answered right away with an Algier alley-oop from Gamble and a Wittig triple.
The game remained tight until Rochester scored eight straight points spanning a little under two minutes, moving ahead 79-67 with just 4:14 remaining. Gamble hit a long ball and then got an and-one opportunity sandwiched around an Andrew Lundstrom layup to complete the run.