CLEVELAND – Rochester regained its shooting touch on Sunday afternoon and posted a 75-62 women's basketball victory at Case Western Reserve University in Horsburgh Gymnasium. The win boosts Rochester's record to 11-5 overall, 3-2 in the UAA. CWRU is 6-10 overall, 1-4 in the UAA. UR hit .500 from the floor (31-62). Case shot .347 (26-75).
It snapped a two-game losing streak for Rochester. The Yellowjackets lost to Washington University-St. Louis in a high-scoring game on January 16 (78-71 WUSTL). Then on Friday night, UR struggled from the field and lost at Carnegie Mellon, 63-46.
There were no shooting struggles this time. The Yellowjackets jumped ahead, 11-6 in the early going with Hannah Lindemuth scoring nine of the 11 points. Rochester built the lead to 15-8 midway through the first quarter and closed the opening 10 minutes on an 11-1 run for a 26-12 lead.
The advantage grew to 19 points, 35-16, after a driving layup by Kelsey Stites. CWRU started to find a little offensive consistency. Rochester hit a cold spell and the Spartans stayed in it by crashing the boards. They had a 27-20 advantage in the first half and finished the game outrebounding Rochester, 46-37. UR did win the battle on the CWRU glass, hauling down 30 defensive rebounds to 20 offensive boards for the home team.
Case finished the second quarter on a 14-4 run that sliced that 19-point UR lead down to nine, 39-30, as the teams went into the locker rooms. Lucy Vanderbeck hit back to back three-pointers to close the halftime deficit to nine points for the hosts. She hit her first one before Stites drained one from right wing for UR. Vanderbeck sank her second one in the closing seconds.
CWRU got a couple of baskets inside to begin the third quarter and drew as close as they had been since early in the game when they tied the score at 6-6. Rochester was aggressive offensively – good ball movement, pressing full court a couple of times that produced layups – right after a set offensive produced a Yellowjacket basket.
This is when Rochester took control of the game for good. UR went on a 14-2 run over six minutes to clamp down, 53-36. Callie McCulley started it with a layup. Hannah Lindemuth scored in the lane. Charlotte Adler, who got the start today, hit a 10 footer on the left baseline. Julianna Okoniewski made one of two from the line. Case answered with a layup by Kayla Characklis (15 pts., 8 rebounds) (46-36). Okoniewski dominated down low in a 30-second span. She made a layup, then scored on a putback and added a free throw for a conventional three-point play. The run finished with a running one hander just outside the lane from Alexis Sestric (53-36 with 2:20 left in the third).
Lindemuth led all scorers with 20 points. Okoniewski had 14 points and 8 rebounds. McCulley scored 5 points and grabbed 8 boards. Maura Leverone had 11 points. Abby Gress had eight points and seven rebounds. Adler, playing not that far from where she went to high school, added three assists to go with three points.
Rochester returns to the Palestra next weekend, hosting NYU on Friday (7:30 pm start) and Brandeis on Sunday (1 p.m. start). It's the first half of Turnaround Weekend with the Yellowjackets going to New York City to play NYU on February 4, then to Boston vs. Brandeis on February 6.