| 12/11/2007 9:07:02 PM

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ROCHESTER, NY -- The RIT men's basketball team put up a valiant second-half effort but fell to top-ranked University of Rochester, 70-80 on Tuesday evening. The Tigers rallied from a 16-point halftime deficit and cut the lead to four points with seven minutes to play but got no closer.

RIT fell behind early and trailed 43-27 at the half. The Tigers shot 40% from the floor in the opening half on 10-for-25 shooting from the floor. RIT went 4-for-9 from three-point land and 3-for-5 from the foul line.

Barrett Zeinfeld (Tucson, AZ/Catalina Foothills) (Tucson, AZ/Catalina Foothills) led RIT with six points in the first half. Kenny Gethers (Syracuse, NY/Bishop Grimes) (Syracuse, NY/Bishop Grimes) added five and Rick Whitwood (Wellsville, NY/Wellsville) (Wellsville, NY) and Shane Foster (Woodland Hills, CA/Calabasas) (Woodland Hills, CA/Calabasas) each scored four.

The Tigers Slowly whittled away the Yellowjackets lead in the second half, outscoring Rochester 27-15 over the first 12-plus minutes of the second half.

Mark Carson (Voorheesville, NY/Voorheesville)'s (Voorheesville, NY) layup with 13:45 got the Tigers to within eight at 49-41. He made it a six-point deficit on another layup with just over 11 minutes to play. Carson would finish with 12 points and eight rebounds.

Rick Whitwood (Wellsville, NY/Wellsville) got the Tigers to within four points on a layup with 7:54 to play in the contest.

The Yellowjackets responded, opening up a nine-point lead on a runner by Jon Onyiriuka with 4:44 remaining. Rochester extended their lead to 12-points on a free throw by Brad Runco.

The Tigers lengthened the game by fouling the Yellowjackets and were able to get the lead back down to six on a layup from Gethers with 28 seconds remaining.

However, the Tigers turned the ball over and Rochester made enough free throws down the stretch to put the game out of reach.

Kenny Gethers (Syracuse, NY/Bishop Grimes) led RIT with 16 points and 13 rebounds. Carson added 12 points and eight rebounds while Shane Foster (Woodland Hills, CA/Calabasas) scored 11 points, grabbed two rebounds, had three assist and two steals.

Jon Onyiriuka led Rochester with 23 points and 10 rebounds.

RIT will host the Harold J. Brodie Tournament this weekend beginning on Friday evening at 6 pm. The Tigers will face D'Youville College at 8 pm.