GENEVA, N.Y. – The University of Rochester grabbed 28 offensive rebounds and turned those into 32 second chance points to post an 80-53 victory over RIT in the quarterfinal round of the Wendy's Classic at William Smith College.
UR (3-1) won its 22nd consecutive game in the Classic and its 13th straight opening round game. The Yellowjackets will play in the semifinals at the Palestra on Thursday night against SUNY Brockport, which defeated St. John Fisher, 72-62. The first game of the doubleheader pairs SUNY Geneseo vs. William Smith College. Geneseo defeated Nazareth, 75-50, and William Smith held off Roberts Wesleyan, 79-74.
Rochester head coach Jim Scheible earned two milestone victories with UR's effort. The win was his 259th at UR, putting him into the career lead, one ahead of Joyce Wong who coached from 1978-1999. This is Scheible's 14th season at UR. It was also his 400th career victory. This is his 22nd season as a head women's basketball coach. He coached previously at Clarkson University and at Elmira College before coming to UR for the 1999-2000 season.
Forwards Danielle McNabb (eight), Loren Wagner (seven), and Emily Trapani (six) combined for 21 of the 28 offensive boards. Wagner scored 11 points, McNabb had 10 – seven in the second half when the Yellowjackets pulled away – and Trapani scored a career high 13, all in the first 20 minutes.
Ally Zywicki led UR in scoring with 17 points which equaled her career high.
Leslie Havens and Courtney Tennant paced RIT (0-1) with 11 points apiece. Kayla Wheeler had eight points. The Tigers will play in the Thursday consolation doubleheader at Geneseo against the loser of the Brockport-Fisher game.
Rochester finished with an overall 49-18 advantage on the glass, 21-6 at the RIT end of the floor and 28-12 under its own basket.
Trapani scored seven points in a 14-3 run that turned an 8-5 deficit into a 19-11 lead midway through the first half. The Tigers got within one point twice, the last time on a basket by Wheeler with 3:20 left (27-26). Rochester went on a 10-4 spree to finish the half. Zywicki drained a three from the top of the key, then added two free throws. Katie Weiner made one free throw and Breanna Madrazo sank both ends of a one-and-one. Wagner finished the first half scoring for Rochester with a layup. It was 37-30 at the break.
RIT got as close as three, 41-38, just over two minutes into the second half. The Yellowjackets held the Tigers without a field goal for the next six minutes and used a 17-2 run to take command for good. Zywicki scored seven of the 17. Woods dropped in a pair of layups. Wagner made one layup and McNabb scored three points - one field goal, then one of two from the line. That gave Rochester a 58-40 lead.