The University of Rochester men's basketball team closed out its non-conference schedule with a hot-shooting performance on Tuesday evening, defeating visiting RIT 76-57 at the Louis Alexander Palestra.
 
Senior Patrick Benka had a career night, scoring 22 points while not missing a shot from the field, going 8-for-8 overall and 6-for-6 from 3-point range.  The only shot Benka missed was a free throw following a layup midway through the second half.
 
Benka was the only Yellowjacket player in double-figures, as it was a balanced effort from UR. Brian Amabilino Perez scored nine points and had six rebounds while Ryan Algier had eight points and four assists.  Matt Niemczura and Ross Gang each chipped in six points while 12 total players scored for Rochester (9-2).
 
Overall, the Yellowjackets shot 56% from the floor, sinking 28 of 50 attempts and were 13-23 (56.5%) from distance.
 
RIT's leading scorer was Curtis Nesbit who had 12 points.  Five players each made two 3-pointers for the Tigers (4-5) as RIT finished 10-for-21 (47.6%) from long range.  Matt Anderson added eight points for RIT while four players scored six.
 
The visiting Tigers were able to hang with Rochester for the better part of the opening half, thanks to some hot outside shooting early on.  Michael Young and Nesbit drained triples to put RIT up 12-8 six minutes in.

After Anderson sank a trey and Drew DeBacco added a free throw, RIT was up 20-18 at the midway point of the period.
 
Rochester turned it on after that, going on a 23-4 run over seven minutes to surge ahead by 17 points with 3:08 left in the half.
 
Kailan Lee and Benka sank three's to ignite the run which featured UR making 9-of-10 shots, including all five three pointers in the stretch.  RIT scuffled, making just 2-of-10, committing four turnovers during the same timeframe.
 
Benka scored nine points in the run, while Josiah Knight added five for the Yellowjackets.  At the break, UR held a 44-29 lead.
 
Rochester earned a 22-point cushion just two minutes into the second half following a 7-0 spurt.  Algier contributed five of those, including a layup and top of the key three-pointer.
 
The Tigers tried to fight back, scoring nine straight points, seven by Nesbit to trim the lead to 13 with 15:56 on the clock, but that was as close as the visitors got the rest of the way.
 
UR now shifts its focus to the always competitive University Athletic Association schedule, which begins on Saturday at 4 pm against #6 ranked Emory University.