Women’s Basketball Overcome by #4 Rochester

Dec. 2 – (PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – The Carnegie Mellon women’s basketball team opened University Athletic Association (UAA) play with a tall order of going up against the University of Rochester Yellowjackets, the #4 team in Division III according to D3hoops.com. The host Tartans played even with Rochester in the first half, going into halftime up 36-34. The Yellowjackets proved too much for Carnegie Mellon in the second half, as they regained the lead and pulled away for a 67-58 victory.

Rochester (6-0, 1-0) jumped out to an early 8-2 lead, but back-to-back three-pointers by sophomore point guard Stacie Aleski (Pittsburgh, Pa./Chartiers Valley) and senior guard Ashley Mazziotta (New Tripoli, Pa./Northwestern Lehigh) knotted the game at eight. Rochester proceeded to build an 18-10 lead with 12:15 remaining before the Tartans (4-1, 0-1) went on an 11-2 run to take their first lead of the game at the 7:28 mark. Two free throws by Aleski with 17 seconds remaining gave Carnegie Mellon a 36-34 lead heading into halftime.

Sophomore forward Ashley Rothwell (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mount Alvernia) caught fire, scoring 12 straight points for the Tartans in a four-minute span. She finished the first half with 14 points and ten rebounds, giving her a double-double in only 15 minutes of action.

Rochester came out fired up to start the second half, going on a 22-5 run to take a 56-41 lead with 10:29 remaining. The Tartans struggled, shooting only 26% from the field in the second half while the Yellowjackets shot 50%. Rothwell and sophomore guard Colleen Light (Colts Neck, N.J./Saint John Vianney) provided much of the scoring in the second half for Carnegie Mellon, with Rothwell’s jumper cutting the deficit to single-digits right before the buzzer.

Rothwell finished with a career-high 22 points and tied a career-high with 12 rebounds in the loss. Light added 17 points on 8-of-12 shooting and Aleski finished with seven points and five assists. The Yellowjackets showed their depth by having eight players score between six and 12 points in the game. Senior Emily Lyons came off the bench to lead the team with 12 points and sophomore Alex Porter pulled down 12 rebounds in the win.

Rochester shot 43% for the game compared to Carnegie Mellon’s 33%. Rochester out-rebounded the Tartans 42-34 and won despite committing 29 turnovers. Carnegie Mellon turned the ball over 23 times.

The Carnegie Mellon women’s basketball team will next be in action on Tuesday, December 5 when they travel to play Washington & Jefferson College. The game is scheduled to start at 7:00 pm.