A furious fourth quarter rally by the University of Rochester women's basketball team came up short on Sunday afternoon, with the Yellowjackets falling 78-71 to Washington University in St. Louis at the Louis Alexander Palestra.
UR falls to 10-4 on the season and suffers its first conference loss, moving to 2-1 in UAA play. Washington improves to 8-6 and is 2-1 in the conference following the win.
Rochester's leading scorer was Maura Leverone who had 18 points, including going 3-for-3 from long range. Julianna Okoniewski was strong inside, going for 17 points and 9 rebounds, also swatting 4 blocks. Hannah Lindemuth added 16 points.
Washington's Jessica Brooks led all players with a big game, scoring 30 points while finishing with 11 rebounds. She was 11-for-18 from the floor, made three 3-pointers and was 5-of-6 from the free throw line. Maya Arnott was the only other Bears player in double-figures, finishing with 12 points and nine rebounds.
After a tight first half, which saw Washington lead 36-34, the Yellowjackets had a sluggish third quarter, allowing the visiting Bears to head to the final period up ten points.
The lead was pushed to 13 after Brooks made a driving layup with 6:36 to play in the game.
A minute later, after UR had scored three points off free throws from Okoneiwski and Callie McCulley, the Yellowjackets switched to a full court press, which caught the Bears off guard offensively.
After Okoniewski's free throws cut the WashU lead to 64-54, she recorded a steal in the backcourt and drove for a layup. Brooks missed a three at the other end for the Bears and McCulley provided a put back of a Charlotte Adler missed triple and the lead was down to six at 64-58 with 4:25 left.
Fifty seconds later, Naomi Jackson silenced the run with a 3-pointer from the right corner, putting Washington back up nine.
Another foul sent Okoniewski to the line for two more free throws, which she made. On the ensuing inbounds, Leverone came up with steal, missed a layup and saw her teammate Okoniewski there for the put back.
Washington broke the press on the next possession, but Okoniewski blocked a shot by Sabrina DelBello and ignited a fast break which Lindemuth converted for a layup.
The WashU lead was down to three, 67-64, forcing the Bears to take a 30 second time out.
UR's press forced another steal following the break, this time with Lindemuth swiping the ball away, turning it into an old-fashioned 3-point play which tied the score at 67-all with 2:47 left.
The 9-0 run for the Yellowjackets took just 30 seconds.
Brooks followed with a jumper in the paint to regain the lead for Washington.
After two missed shots by UR, the Yellowjackets defense nearly got the stop it needed to regain the ball. However, with two seconds left on the shot clock, Brooks got loose on an inbounds play and was fouled. She sank both free throws and Washington was back up four with less than 90 seconds left.
Okoniewski sank a layup to get Rochester back within two, but Molly Gannon drained a big shot on the other end, answering for the Bears.
A missed jumper on offense forced Rochester to begin fouling, and Brooks and Gannon combined to make 5-of-6 from the charity stripe down the stretch, hanging on for the WashU victory.
UR will be tied for second in the UAA standings following completion of this weekends conference slate with its 2-1 record. Rochester heads to Carnegie Mellon next Friday and will play at Case Western Reserve a week from today in its first road conference games of the season.