From University of Rochester Athletics
If you're going to score 99 points (and win), you'll need a lot of people to make a lot of shots. That's what happened for the men's basketball team on Friday night in a 99-92 victory over Case Western Reserve University.
The Yellowjackets benefited from perhaps the most balanced scoring effort of the season. Seven men scored in double figures: Sam Borst-Smith led the way with 25 points. Michael Mangan scored 16 points, including 10 of 12 from the foul line. Jacob Wittig had 11 points and seven rebounds. Zack Ayers had 11 points and five rebounds. Jared Seltzer, Mack Montague, and Tucker Knox added 10 apiece.
Matt Clark led the host Spartans with 28 points. He hit five of CWRU's 17 three-pointers. David Black had 15 points – all coming from outside the arc. Colin Zucker scored 13. T.J. Duckett had eight points and 11 rebounds. Jimmy Holman had seven points and eight assists. CWRU is 10-13 overall, 3-9 in the UAA.
The win was the ninth in a row for Rochester. The Yellowjackets are 17-6 overall, 10-2 in the UAA. They remain tied for first place with Emory. The Eagles defeated Carnegie Mellon, 83-68. Rochester plays at CMU on Sunday, Emory goes to Case Western Reserve.
The Spartans relied on the three-point shot throughout. CWRU attempted 42 three-point shots (made 17, a pct. of .405). Rochester outscored CWRU, 48-26, in the paint. The Yellowjackets shot a season's best .540 from the floor (34-63) and .400 outside the arc (8-20). Rochester made 23 of 26 free throw attempts (.885). (CWRU was 11-16).
Rochester negotiated a 23-18 lead midway through the first half before the Spartans began to heat up. Zucker hit two three-pointers, Clark had one, and Jacob Lavis had one. CWRU went on a 14-0 run over three minutes to stake a 32-23 lead with 6:46 left in the half. Rochester rallied with 10 straight points: a layup from Wittig, two free throws by Seltzer, a traditional three-point play by Borst-Smith, and then a three-pointer by Borst-Smith. All the points came within 83 seconds. CWRU led, 40-39, at halftime.
The second half, like stretches of the first 20 minutes, was a series of spurts. Rochester led by one, then outscored CWRU 10-3 for a 55-47 lead. Three-pointers from Black and Zucker pulled the hosts within 55-53 with more than 13 minutes left. Rochester went on a 12-2 flurry – a follow by Mangan, one free throw later by Mangan, a 10-footer from Borst-Smith, a tip-in by Knox, a trifecta from Borst-Smith, and two free throws by Ayers. That made it 67-55 with the clock under 10:30 left.