| 1/6/2004 9:33:47 PM
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ROCHESTER, NY -- The men's basketball team resumed action on Tuesday night with a game against cross-town rival and fifth ranked University of Rochester. The Tigers fell to the Yellowjackets 66-50.
The first half was tight throughout. RIT held a two-point lead five minutes into the game on a pair of free throws by Sean Murphy (Buffalo, NY/Williamsville North) (Buffalo, NY). Rochester came back and took their first lead at 11:29 on a layup by Seth Hauben. The Yellowjackets built their lead to 11 points with 4:19 to play in the half on a jump shot by Andy Larkin. RIT would not go away as they mounted a comeback in the last four minutes of the half. Cameron Youngblood got it started when he hit a three-pointer to cut the lead to eight points. After a turnover by Joe Canty, senior captain John Johnson (Hamburg, N.Y./Frontier Central) (Hamburg, NY) made a jumper to cut Rochester's lead to six points. Kyle Goff (Manassas, VA) made it a four point lead with his lay up with just under two minutes to play. Then, with time winding down Jesse Foote (Lockwood, N.Y./Spencer-Van Ettan) made it a two-point game with his lay up. Makedo Wisseh made a lay up of his own with four seconds to play in the half, giving Rochester a 30-26 lead heading into the locker room.
RIT shot 40 percent in the first half on 10-25 shooting. Fran Snyder (Buffalo, NY/Bishop Timon St. Jude) led RIT with six points and Sean Murphy (Buffalo, NY/Williamsville North) added five points.
The second half saw Rochester heat up from the floor and RIT cool down. The Tigers shot 29 percent in the second half, while the Yellowjackets shot 63.6 percent. The closest RIT got in the second half was early on when Kyle Goff's dunk cut Rochester's lead to 32-30. That is as close as the Tigers would get as Rochester slowly pulled away, building their lead to as many as 19 points and going onto victory.
Kyle Goff paced RIT with 10 points on 3-9 shooting from the floor. The junior forward also grabbed three rebounds. Fran Snyder (Buffalo, NY/Bishop Timon St. Jude) added nine points, while Jesse Foote (Lockwood, N.Y./Spencer-Van Ettan) added eight points. Drew Martin (Oneonta, NY/Oneonta) led the Tigers with five rebounds.
The loss drops RIT to 4-4 on the year. The Tigers begin Empire 8 conference play this weekend with a double-header on Friday and Saturday. On Friday RIT will host Elmira College at 8 p.m. They follow that up with a 4 p.m. game against Ithaca on Saturday.
