HENRIETTA, NY – Junior Logan Jagodzinski scored 20 of his career-high 28 points over the final ten and a half minutes of the game, powering the University of Rochester Men's Basketball team to a 78-68 comeback win over the Rochester Institute of Technology on Sunday afternoon at Clark Gymnasium.
Rochester (6-4) trailed the host Tigers by as many as 13 with under ten minutes to play, but put on a surge late, outscoring RIT with a 30-7 run to rally for the victory in the penultimate non-conference matchup of the season.
UR's big run was ignited by a floater in the lane from junior Jack Garside with 9:01 left in the contest. Jagodzinski took over after that, scoring Rochester's next 12 points in what would end up being a 16-2 Yellowjackets stretch.
First-year Malachi Moore capped the spurt with a jumper from the top of the key to put UR up 64-63 with 5:17 remaining. That lead was Rochester's first since Moore's basket put the Yellowjackets up 2-0 a minute and a half into the contest.
After RIT's Keegan Ocorr drove to the basket to put the Tigers (5-4) back in front by one, Jagodzinski answered with a layup at UR's end to regain the lead.
Trailing by one following a Jackson Otis layup inside for RIT, UR's Matt Wile dropped in an alley-oop layup off a pass from C.J. Amsellem with 2:08 left to put the Yellowjackets in front for good.
RIT had an empty set on its next possession and Rochester capitalized on its next turn with what ended up being a 6-point set.
Jagodzinski drained a 3-pointer as the shot clock was winding down and was fouled. He missed the free throw, but Wiele was there inside for the offensive rebound, basket and another foul shot, extending the lead to seven with a little over a minute remaining.
UR's defense stopped the Tigers from scoring the rest of the way, with Matt Niemczura and Moore finishing off the win with shots made from the charity stripe.
Rochester shot a noticeable improvement shooting during the second half, making 49% from the field and five 3-pointers over the final 20 minutes. During the opening half, UR was 0-for-8 from distance and made just 41% of its attempts.
At the break, RIT held a 41-32 advantage in the scoring column.
Besides his career-high scoring output, Jagodzinski added 10 rebounds in the win, matching a career-best. He was 12-for-20 overall from the field, had four 3-pointers and three steals.
Wiele was solid all around, recording 16 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 blocks. Moore chipped in nine points and seven rebounds.
Tomiwa Adetosoye had six points and five rebounds, while Amsellem finished with six assists, leading the team.
RIT's leading scorer was Matt Caggiano who had 15 points off the bench. He scored all the points in a 9-2 run by the Tigers midway through the first half which put RIT up by ten points.
Otis chipped in 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting while Keegan Ocorr added 11 points and six boards for the Tigers.
RIT suffered the opposite fate in the second half from a shooting perspective, as the Tigers mustered just 9-for-29 shooting overall (31%) in the final ten minutes, compared to making 49% (17-35) in the first half.
UR closes out its non-conference schedule on Tuesday at Johns Hopkins University at 2 p.m.