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Seniors Pave The Way as Yellowjackets Win Resler Title

Seniors Pave The Way as Yellowjackets Win Resler Title
Posted: Nov 19, 2016

From University of Rochester Athletics

With double-figure scoring efforts from all three seniors, the University of Rochester men's basketball team pulled away to win the 2016 Chuck Resler Invitational Tournament title at the Palestra on Saturday evening.

Rochester defeated Washington & Lee University, 77-50, in the championship game. The Yellowjackets are off to a 3-0 start. They host Hobart College on Tuesday, then greet three visiting teams a week from now in the Lexington Airport Hotel Thanksgiving Invitational.

Sam Borst-Smith scored 22 points in 29 minutes for UR. He added five rebounds, two assists, and five steals. His total included four three-point field goals (in eight attempts). Mack Montague scored 21 points in 26 minutes. He had five three-pointers. Zack Ayers got into the act with 13 points on 5-7 accuracy from the field – and he hit a three-pointer as well. In all, Rochester made 11 shots beyond the arc.

Devin Kearns and Kevin Dennin led Washington & Lee with 11 points apiece. The Generals are 1-2 overall. Kearns was named to the All-Tournament Team with teammates Clayton Murtagh. He grabbed a game-high eight rebounds today and had 16 points in W&L's victory over Suffolk University (66-56) on Friday that got the Generals into the championship game.

The Most Valuable Player was Borst-Smith. He was joined on the All-Tournament team by Montague, Michael Hagopian of Suffolk, and Sage Brown of Alfred University. Alfred defeated Suffolk, 68-58, in the third place game.

Rochester took advantage of some ball-handling woes by Washington & Lee. The Yellowjackets had 14 steals on 22 Generals' turnovers and produced 30 points as a result.

A jumper by Kearns from the right of the key tied the score at 7-7 seven minutes in. Rochester scored the next 12 points, six by Borst-Smith, to build a 19-7 lead. They were failry even after that for the remainder of the first half which ended with a 32-21 Rochester lead.

The Yellowjackets sank a pair of treys to open the second half (Borst-Smith and Tucker Knox). The lead ran out to 18, 43-25. Dennin hit his second trey of the game to bring it down to 13 (43-30) before Ayers hit a three from the right corner and Borst-Smith followed with two more for a 52-32 lead.

Rochester held a slim 35-33 edge on the boards, but a larger 24-5 margin at Scranton's end of the floor. Andrew Lundstrom led Rochester with six rebounds Borst-Smith had five.