Chicago (16-4, 5-4 UAA) had tied the game at 75-all with 9.1 seconds left courtesy of a three-pointer by Nofi Mojidi, who scored 18 of her game-high 26 points in the second half.
NYU (18-2, 7-2 UAA) called a full timeout following Mojidi’s triple. On the inbounds play, Rochetti took the ball and dribbled into traffic before getting hit on a lay-up attempt.
NYU, which entered the game ranked #12 in the ESPN/USA Today Division III Coaches’ Poll and #18 in the D3hoops.com Poll, swept the season series from the Maroons and remained tied for first in the UAA with the University of Rochester and Washington University.
Chicago was also ranked #12 by ESPN/USA Today and #13 by D3hoops.com.
"I think we're very happy to have gone 3-1 the past two weekends against Chicago and Washington. It's the closest you can come to a baseball series, going to Chicago and Washington last weekend and then playing them here this weekend. It's just an unbelievable four-game series," NYU head coach Janice Quinn said. "We showed a lot of mental toughness today. I thought Chicago came at us really, really hard. I was really happy to see our mental toughness."
Chicago held control of the contest, going on an 8-0 spurt spanning the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half to take a 37-29 lead.
However, the Violets got plenty of production from their core of Rochetti (10 points), seniors Karen Bachman (11 points, nine rebounds, five blocks) and Stephanie Ryba (19 points), and sophomore Jessica McEntee (20 points, 17 rebounds) down the stretch.
McEntee went 14-14 from the charity stripe overall, including 10 conversions to score 14 points in the second half. The sophomore finished with her 12th double-double of the season.
Also for the Violets, Ryba scored 10 of her points in the second half, while Bachman tallied nine and Rochetti netted eight after intermission.
Meanwhile, NYU kept Chicago off the offensive glass in the second half and cut down on its miscues: After allowing 12 offensive rebounds and committing 12 turnovers in the first half, the Violets allowed just three offensive boards over the final 20 minutes while committing just two miscues.
"The kids really did what we asked," Quinn said. "They just showed a lot of poise."
Molly Hackney finished with 11 points and nine rebounds for Chicago, which fell despite shooting 43.1% (28-65) while holding the Violets to 32.9% (23-70).
"We just showed a lot of maturity, because pretty much nothing was going great for us," Quinn said.
Both teams excelled from the charity stripe, though: NYU hit 83.3% of its free shots, while the Maroons knocked down 81.0% (17-21) of their tries.
NYU returns to action Friday, Feb. 9, when it hosts the University of Rochester (#7 ESPN/USA Today, #7 D3hoops.com) at 6 pm in a battle to remain atop the UAA standings.