WALTHAM, MA – There must be something to this rivalry between Rochester and Brandeis University – particularly with the visiting teams. For the fourth time in the past six games, the visiting team won the game. On Sunday, it was Rochester rolling to a 72-53 victory in women's basketball over the Judges at the Red Auerbach Arena on the Brandeis campus. One week ago, Brandeis claimed a 66-59 win at Rochester's Palestra.
 
With the victory, Rochester raises its overall record to 13-7, 5-4 in the University Athletic Association. Brandeis is 6-12 overall, 1-8 in the UAA.
 
Julianna Okoniewski was saddled with two early fouls and did not score in the first half. In the second half, she dominated. She scored 17 points, hitting 7 of 10 from the floor, 3-6 from the line, and collected 13 rebounds, five offensive. She finished with the 17 points and 14 rebounds, collecting one in the first 20 minutes.
 
Hannah Lindemuth scored 16 points for Rochester, Alexis Sestric added 11, Maura Leverone had eight, and Kelsey Stites had seven. Kat Jenks scored four. Callie McCulley scored three points and grabbed seven rebounds.
 
For Brandeis, Emma Reavis scored 17. Camila Casanueva had 12, accompanied by nine rebounds, and Caitlin Gresko scored 11.

UR found it tough to get started in the early part of the first quarter. Shots weren't dropping. Down by six (14-8), Stites and Frankie Gomez scored all the points in a 7-0 run that put UR ahead, 15-14, when the quarter ended. Gomez hit a jumper from the foul line, Stites made two free throws, Gomez hit another one from the key, and Stites scored in the lane.
 
Over the first five minutes of the second quarter, Rochester went on a 16-6 run (23-6 if you count the Stites-Gomez scoring run in the first quarter). Sestric scored seven of the 16. Lindemuth had five, and Leverone scored four. Haley Dumiak's layup put Rochester in front, 33-18. Brandeis did saw points off the deficit. The Judges hit 10-10 from the foul line in the closing minutes to get the Rochester lead down to 35-30.
 
Okoniewski scored eight early points in the third period. Rochester outscored Brandeis, 20-7, in that quarter to lead by 18 heading into the last quarter.
 
Notes: The visiting team won both ends of the series in the 2018-19 season (Brandeis 56-52 at UR, Rochester 74-66 at Brandeis) and now in the 2021-22 season (Brandeis 66-59 in Rochester on Jan. 30, 2022 at UR, Rochester 72-55 at Brandeis on Feb. 6.)… The men's game between the teams was the 2,400^th all-time for Rochester. This game is the 1,438^th women's game for the Yellowjackets (738-508 overall record)… On Monday, Carnegie Mellon will play at Washington to make up a postponement from Friday night (travel problems into St. Louis with the storm). In the current standings, NYU is 8-1, Emory 6-3, Washington 5-3 (with the CMU game to be played), Rochester and Chicago tied at 5-4, Carnegie 3-5, Case Western Reserve 2-7, and Brandeis 1-8. UR plays at Chicago on February 11 and at Washington on February 13).