From University of Rochester Athletics
The University of Rochester men's basketball team scored a season high 90 points in a wire-to-wire 90-71 victory over Case Western Reserve University on Friday night at the Louis Alexander Palestra, earning its first University Athletic Association victory of the season in the process.
Rochester moves to 1-1 in the conference and 10-3 overall. Case Western Reserve is also 1-1 in the UAA and 7-6 overall on the season. The victory also avenges an upset the Spartans gave UR the last time the two teams met at the Palestra on senior day last season.
UR's defense also held a high-powered CWRU offense in check, holding the Spartans to nearly 10 points under their season average, which was at 80.4 points per game entering Friday.
Junior Ryan Clamage led all scorers with 21 points on 7-13 shooting, adding six rebounds and four assists. Michael Mangan scored 13 points, had 3 assists and 3 steals while Jacob Wittig added 12 points on 5-7 shooting with six boards. Tucker Knox scored an additional 11 points off the bench, while Andrew Lundstromfinished with nine.
Case Western Reserve's Connor Nally led the Spartans with 12 points, including three 3-pointers, while teammate William FitzPatrick scored 11 points in just eight minutes off the bench. TJ Duckett had eight points and nine rebounds while Antonio Ionaldi chipped in nine points.
An 8-0 Rochester run gave the Yellowjackets their first 10-point lead of the game at 17-7 just over five and a half minutes into the game, aided by two 3-pointers from UR, one each by Clamage and Wittig. Overall on the night, 10-19 from distance.
CWRU would score nine of the next 11 points, including five by Michael Hollis to pull back within three nearly midway through the opening half, making the score 19-16.
The Spartans would get as close as two, down 26-24, with 6:22 left in the first after back-to-back three's from Ionaldi, but Rochester responded with 17-5 run to end the half and go to intermission up by 14. UR shot well in that run, going 6-10 from the floor and also forcing four Spartan turnovers. Mangan had six points in the spurt, while Wittig had four.
Nally drained a 3-pointer to start the second half for Case Western Reserve, but that 11-point deficit would be as close as the Spartans would get the rest of the way, as UR then scored seven straight points, and 15 of 18 to pull away. Clamage led UR with eight points, including two triples in the stretch, CWRU struggled with its shot, making only 1-6 attempts in the five-minute span.
Overall on the night, UR shot 52.5% from the floor, making 32-61 shots for a season best percentage. The Spartans meanwhile were shooting at a 40.3% clip (25-62). UR held the advantage on the glass, pulling down 41 rebounds to CWRU's 34.
The game failed to have a strong flow, with 45 personal fouls called, including nine in the first five minutes of the second half against Rochester. Case Western Reserve failed to capitalize on its free throw chances though, only making 11-21 (52.4%) from the charity stripe in the contest. UR was 16-23 (69.6%) overall at the line.