ATLANTA – In a top-25 battle during the opening weekend of University Athletic Association play, host and 22nd-ranked Emory University defeated the 5th-ranked University of Rochester men's basketball team 87-76 on Saturday afternoon at the Woodruff P.E. Center.

Emory, 3-time defending UAA Champion, improves to 10-2 on the season and is 1-0 in UAA. Rochester snaps its second 5-game winning streak of the season, falling to 10-2 and 0-1 in the conference.

The key run in the contest for Emory was a 13-1 spurt over three and a half minute stretch with under eight minutes left. During the run, the games leading scorer, Benjamin Pearce scored seven of his 27 points to lead the Eagles.

Rochester went cold over that time, going 0-for-3, all 3-point attempts and committing two turnovers to allow the Eagles to surge ahead by 12.

T.C. Price and Matt Wiele each grabbed buckets in the next few minutes, but Rochester was only able to get within nine points the rest of the way.

Rochester's Ross Gang led his team with 16 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists. Wiele chipped in 13 points and three steals, while Kershner had 12 points, including three 3-pointers.

Price added nine points and four boards off the bench while Andrew Jackson and Logan Jagodzinski had seven and six points, respectively.

Emory opened the game with the first six points of the contest, but Rochester ended up evening the match at 10-all following a Kershner 3-pointer and Jagodzinski layup inside at the 14:31 mark of the first half.

After the Eagles edged ahead by three following an Albert Fallas 3-pointer, the Yellowjackets scored the next seven points to jump ahead 25-21. Wiele finished the run with an emphatic dunk.

Late in the half, Rochester forced the ball inside and got the Eagles to commit several fouls, eventually sinking eight straight shots from the charity stripe to earn its biggest lead of the game, up 39-34 with under 90 seconds to play in the first.

Cale Martens and Matteo Whelton made jump shots to pull Emory back within one, but C.J. Amsellem drained two more free throws to put Rochester up by three at intermission, leading 41-38.

The teams traded baskets throughout the first five minutes of the second half before Emory finally pulled even following three straight free throws by Jair Knight at the 14:45 mark.

After that, Jagodzinski pulled UR back in front with a jumper from the paint, but Knight and Tyson Thomas both hit triples at the other end for Emory, putting the Eagles up four.

The lead was short lived though, as Price hit a 3-pointer from the corner and Dan Masino hit a jump shot to edge Rochester in front 59-58.

Emory scored the next seven points, but Rochester answered with another 8-2 spurt of its own, capped by a Kershner 3-pointer to make the score 67-67 with 7:56 on the clock.

The Eagles followed with their big run, while also stifling the Yellowjackets on the defensive end to get the double-digit lead and earn the hard-fought victory to open conference play.

Rochester looks to regroup next weekend with two UAA contests at home, hosting Case Western Reserve on Friday and Carnegie Mellon on Sunday.