After battling back from an eight-point deficit early in the fourth quarter to take the lead with under five minutes to play, the University of Rochester women's basketball team dropped a heartbreaker to visiting Hamilton College on Saturday afternoon, falling 64-63 at the Louis Alexander Palestra.
Hamilton first-year Kendall Harris earned the Continentals (10-0) the victory, sinking three free throws with just 1.2 seconds on the clock after getting fouled on a last-second 3-point attempt, rallying after her team was down by two entering the possession.
Rochester (3-5) drew up an inbounds play on the last-ditch effort, but the pass inside the paint was knocked away before the Yellowjackets could get a shot away.
The Hamilton win was the third in the last four meetings between the schools, and the Continentals first victory in the Palestra spanning five games.
Harris finished with a game-high 22 points for the Continentals, ending with a double-double after securing 10 rebounds. Teammate Taylor Lambo also played a big role in the win, notching her own double-double with 17 points and 13 boards.
Rochester's leading scorer was Abby Gress who had 13 points, including a big 3-pointer in a late game Yellowjacket run. Haley Dumiak and Hannah Lindemuth each added 10 points, while Rylee Drahos did a little bit of everything for UR, finishing with 8 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and a block.
The key run in the game was Rochester rattling off a 13-3 spurt over five and a half minutes during the fourth quarter. Drahos started the run with a driving layup through the Hamilton defense and after baskets by Dumiak and Lindemuth, Rochester had trimmed an eight-point Hamilton lead to just two.
Harris sank two free throws to extend the lead, but Gress's lone triple of the game on a top-of-the-key pull-up made the score 56-55 with 5:35 remaining in the game. At the other end, Lambo made one of two free throws to put Hamilton back up by two, but a driving layup by Lindemuth pulled Rochester even.
Gress followed 30 seconds later with two free throws and Rochester had its first lead since midway through the third quarter.
Over the run, Rochester's defense clamped down and did not allow Hamilton to make a field goal, with the Continentals shooting 0-for-8 in the stretch, compared to UR's 5-for-9 shooting over the same time span.
Lambo stopped the Yellowjacket surge with two layups inside to regain the lead for Hamilton, but Haley Dumiak hit a baseline jumper to quickly level the score once again.
At the other end, Dumiak swatted a Lambo layup attempt and secured the rebound, getting the stop the Yellowjackets needed. Rochester turned that into points at the offensive end, with Lindemuth knocking down a pull-up jumper in the paint to put the Yellowjackets in front 63-61 with 1:32 left.
Hamilton's next possession ended with a turnover, giving the ball back to Rochester with a little over a minute to play.
That possession ended empty for the 'Jackets though, as Dumiak missed a 3-pointer and after a strong offensive rebound from Callie McCulley gave UR an extra chance, Lindemuth's layup inside rattled off the rim, with Hamilton's Lambo securing the rebound.
UR's defense nearly held on Hamilton's final offensive possession, but on a heave from the left wing at the buzzer, Harris' arm was touched, and the officials whistled a foul, awarding the three free throws potentially allowing the Continentals to grab the lead.
Harris stepped up to the line after a long video review and UR timeout and was unfazed, draining all three attempts to put her team in front.
The first three quarters were closely played, as the game featured 11 ties and 13 lead changes.
Rochester jumped ahead early with a 9-3 advantage after two and a half minutes following 3-pointers from Dumiak and Claire Groenewoud and an old-fashioned 3-point play inside from Dumiak.
Hamilton answered by scoring ten of the next 12 points to jump in front 13-11, with the teams staying within two points the rest of the quarter. After ten minutes, the teams were tied at 19-all.
Layups from Alex Sullivan and Gress started to second quarter for Rochester, with Drahos assisting on both buckets, putting the Yellowjackets up 23-19. Tessa Cole and Harris both hit 3-pointers to answer for Hamilton and the visitors were back up by two.
Later in the quarter, Hamilton used a 10-2 run to move in front by five, but Groenewoud scored on a driving layup with under 20 seconds left in the half to trim the UR deficit to three, 35-32, heading into intermission.
Midway through the third, Rochester had edged in front 43-42 following a pair of Lindemuth free throws, but Hamilton's Maria Mercado Rengel hit two from the free throw line and Harris added another 3-pointer to her total moving the Continentals back up by four.
UR's Tia Poulakida hit an and-one 3-point play with 2:18 left in the quarter to get UR back within one, but Lambo finished the quarter with four straight points for Hamilton to give the Continentals a 51-46 lead heading into the fourth.
To start the final stanza, Althea Hill drained her lone basket of the game, a 3-pointer from the top of the key, to boost Hamilton's lead to a game-high eight.
Overall in the game, the statistics were fairly even. Rochester shot 23-of-63 (36.5%) from the field compared to Hamilton's 21-for-60 (35.0%). The Continentals made five 3-pointers to UR's three, while Rochester won the battle on the glass, outrebounding the visitors 43-39.
Rochester is now off for three weeks for the holiday break and returns to action at the Puerto Rico Clásico in San Juan, Puerto Rico against the University of Mary Washington on December 29.