ITHACA, N.Y. – The cliché says 'if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes and it will change'. The same reasoning could be applied to Rochester's 64-62 women's basketball victory over Ithaca College on Tuesday night.
It went from laugher to nail-biter in the span of one quarter. By the time it ended, Rochester had its seventh win of the season. UR is 7-3. Ithaca is 5-3. The Yellowjackets will return to the court on January 4 when they visit RIT. After that, they play all University Athletic Association games – with the first three to be played in the Louis Alexander Palestra.
For a while in the first half, it had touches of last Saturday's 97-55 victory at Keuka College. The home team had trouble finding an offensive rhythm. Rochester led 17-4 after one quarter and was ahead by 22 (40-18) when the teams broke for intermission. Rochester's long distance offense was working: 6-12 outside the arc with three of the triples belonging to Alexis Sestric. The Yellowjackets had the running game working as well. Ithaca hit less than 25% from the floor (8 of 33, 24.2%) and was scoreless from distance (0-4). Grace Cannon led the Bombers with 10 points. Megan Yawman had four.
Hannah Lindemuth was the second leading scorer in the first half for UR. She had nine points. Julianna Okoniewski scored six, and Haley Dumiak had five, including a trey from the top of the key. Callie McCulley scored two points, but was cleaning the glass. She had nine rebounds.
Times changed dramatically in the third period. Rochester sank only two of 18 shots from the floor (0-3 outside the arc) (11.1% from the field). The Yellowjackets turned the ball over seven times. Meanwhile, Ithaca found its offense. The Bombers hit nine of 18 floor shots and made one trey. Six minutes into the quarter, Rochester's lead stood at 46-28 after a two swaps of baskets. Ithaca closed the half on a 12-0 run – four points from Natalie Smith, a three-pointer by Alex Heuwetter, and a conventional three-point play by Hannah Polce as the quarter ended. That cut the UR lead to 46-40.
Baskets by Polce and Cara Volpe brought Ithaca within two at 46-44 with more than seven minutes to play. It was the closest the Bombers would get until the last minute. Rochester reorganized and put up a 9-2 run, stretching the lead to 55-46 midway through the quarter. All the points came from Okoniewski (five) and Maura Leverone (4).
A calm ending was not possible. Ithaca went on a brief 7-1 run (56-53 with the clock below two minutes. Okoniewski scored in the lane ahead of Megan Yawman's layup (58-55 with 1:07 left). Sestric's fourth trey of the game made it a six-point edge with 47 ticks left. Dorn scored for Ithaca ahead of 2-2 from the line for Leverone. Yawman made things interesting with a triple with 11 seconds left. Leverone hit one free throw, enough for victory. Cannon sank two free throws just before the final buzzer.
Sestric scored 16 points for Rochester. Okoniewski added 15 plus seven boards. Dumiak added 11, Lindemuth had nine (plus three rebounds, three assists, and three steals). Leverone had eight points (all in the last quarter), three assists, and two steals. McCulley collared 13 rebounds to accompany her four points. For Ithaca, Cannon finished with 24 points and 10 boards. She was the only Ithaca player in double figures. Megan Buxton pulled down 10 rebounds. Yawman finished with nine points, five rebounds, and four assists.