From University of Rochester
It was a brilliant all-around performance from junior All-American Alexandra Leslie as Rochester's women's basketball team won its final non-conference contest of the season, a 72-62 triumph over RIT on Tuesday evening at Clark Gymnasium.
Leslie poured in 29 points, grabbed a season high 20 rebounds while adding 6 assists and 3 blocked shots. The 20 boards was one off of her career high set at Ithaca in 2015. Overall, it was the juniors sixth double-double this season and 29th of her career, with Rochester moving to 24-5 in those contests.
Joining Leslie in leading the 22nd-ranked Yellowjackets (9-2) was Lauren Deming who scored 12 points and grabbed seven rebounds and Lizzy Atkinson who added 11 points off the bench, including three 3-pointers. Freshman Lauren Foley added nine points on three treys.
To open the game, RIT (8-1) came out shooting well making six of its first ten attempts, including two treys by Taylor Burns to build a seven point lead, 15-8, four minutes in. After one, the Tigers held a 22-16 edge.
Rochester took hold of the contest in the second quarter outscoring the Tigers 23-7. Overall, the UR defense held the Tigers to 3-19 shooting, compared to UR's 9-15 from the floor, including hitting three of four from the 3-point line. RIT's Cori Okada scored all seven of her teams points in the quarter while UR rode its All-American in Leslie who poured in 13 points in the quarter.
Rochester took its first lead since going up 2-0 after Sarah Kaminsky sank two of three free throws with 8:07 left in the 2nd quarter. That was followed by an RIT basket and two Leslie jumpers to put the Yellowjackets up by four, but Okada made a step-back three and a lay-up on back-to-back possessions to pull RIT ahead 29-28 with 3:43 remaining in the half. Rochester would then close with 11 straight points to end the quarter and head to intermission up by 10.
A back-and-forth third quarter saw the Tigers chip away at the Yellowjacket lead, pulling within five after 30 minutes, trailing 54-49 after an Amanda Olson jumper beat the buzzer.
UR then opened the fourth with a 10-1 spurt, building a 14-point lead, a game high, with 7:37 left. The run was sparked by two Foley three's coming from the same spot in the right corner on back-to-back possessions. RIT responded with nine of the next 11 points though, pulling back within seven with under three minutes on the clock. Leslie and Deming closed the game out with their strong play in the paint, scoring the 'Jackets final six points.
Overall, Rochester shot 42% (28-67) from the floor in the game, compared to the 37% (27-73) for the Tigers, the 10th opponent to shoot under a 40% clip against the Yellowjackets.
RIT was led by Okada who scored a career-high 26 points, adding four rebounds. Jessica Glaz had seven points and seven rebounds while Olson finished with eight points.