University of Rochester women's basketball used an 11-2 second-quarter run to open up a lead they'd never relinquish, and held on late to defeat the Mary Washington Eagles, 60-56, in their opening game of the Puerto Rico Clásico on Friday morning inside Coliseo Mario Morales.
After a bit of a slow start, Abby Gress got the Yellowjackets on the scoreboard with a jumper at the 7:26 mark of the first quarter, cutting into the Eagles' early lead. Mary Washington led by as many as five in the early going, taking a 5-0 lead following two Ashley Martin free throws two minutes in, but Rochester would tie the game a little less than four minutes later.
Down 7-3, back-to-back layups from Rylee Drahos and Gress leveled the score at seven-all, before Keagan Schwab and Tia Poulakidas traded buckets to once again tie the score, this time at 11-11.
Schwab then hit a jumper at the 29-second mark, stretching the Eagles' lead out to three, but Drahos scored another bucket before the quarter buzzer, making it a 13-12 Mary Washington lead after one.
Drahos added another three points to start the second, with a basket and foul giving the Yellowjackets their first lead of the morning. UR pulled ahead with free throws from Haley Dumiak and Raquel Williams's and-one, opening a 20-15 lead with, 7:23 left in the second.
But Jenna Steadman and Jordan Carpenter answered with two buckets for the Eagles, pulling Mary Washington back within a point, 20-19, with 6:27 remaining in the first half.
Over the next 1:48 though, the Yellowjackets went on a run, outscoring Mary Washington, 11-2 over the stretch as Hannah Lindemuth canned three triples to extend Rochester's lead to 31-21, their largest of the game.
And while Carpenter would add six more points down the stretch for the Eagles, cutting UR's lead to single digits, Franki Gomez again helped UR get the last bucket of the quarter, scoring off Hailey Bruneau's assist to make it a 36-26 Yellowjacket lead at the break.
In total, Rochester outscored the Eagles, 24-13 in the second period, shooting 35.3 percent from the field and 50.0 percent from three in the quarter while forcing seven turnovers.
The Yellowjackets would hold onto their lead for much of the third, matching the Eagles bucket-for-bucket over a two-minute stretch, with Claire Groenewoud sinking a layup and knocking down a three to keep UR up nine, 45-36.
But over the next three minutes, Mary Washington made a run, outscoring the 'Jackets, 9-2, from the six-minute mark of the third till just over two-and-a-half minutes left, pulling within a pair on Steadman's layup with 2:35 left in the third.
On the ensuing possession though, Callie McCulley knocked down a three, and after two Keira Rohrbach free throws again made it a one-possession game, McCulley and Gress combined to score the last four points of the quarter to give UR a 54-47 lead heading to the fourth.
Sydney Sherman pulled Mary Washington within five, 54-49, just over four seconds into the period before a nearly three-minute scoreless stretch from both sides kept things tight over the next few minutes.
The two sides went a combined 1-for-10 to start the fourth, before Drahos' layup got both offenses going at the 6:57 mark. Schwab answered on the other end to keep it at a five-point lead, and less than a minute later, Carpenter went 1-for-2 at the line to pull Mary Washington within four.
Both sides again went cold from the field, with neither the Eagles nor the Yellowjackets scoring a bucket for nearly three minutes.
UR again broke the scoreless stretch though, this time with a clutch triple from Dumiak with 2:34 to play, putting Rochester up 59-52, but the Eagles had one last run in them and made it a three-point game with 43 seconds left.
Off a pair of turnovers, Carpenter sank two layups to make it a one-possession game, but Rochester would hold Mary Washington without a point the rest of the way, while McCulley went 1-for-2 at the line to finish off the 60-56 victory.
Rochester snaps their three-game losing streak, moving to 4-5 with the win, while Mary Washington drops to 8-3 with the loss.
McCulley led UR with a double-double, tallying 12 points and 11 rebounds, while Lindemuth added nine points and a team-high four assists. Defensively, Gress notched four steals while McCulley added two blocks.
As a team, Rochester shot 33.9 percent from the field, 6-for-18 from three and 16-for-21 from the free-throw line, with the Eagles shooting 35.9 percent and just 6-for-10 from the free-throw line.