Freshman seven foot center Mike Grunst scored seven of the 21 points, including a three point goal that put the Bears ahead for good, 19-17, with 6:14 left in the half.
Washington's victory knocked the Yellowjackets from the ranks of the unbeaten. A little less than a year ago, Rochester defeated then-unbeaten and top-ranked Washington in Rochester.
The loss was the first of the season for Rochester. The Yellowjackets are 19-1 overall, 8-1 in the UAA. Washington moved to within one game of first place with a 7-2 UAA mark, 15-5 overall.
Rochester trailed by 10, 27-17, after the WU burst. The lead ballooned at 11 in the first half, 30-19, after Michael Faherty sank Washington's fourth three pointer of the half. It was 32-25 at halftime.
The Yellowjackets used a 10-4 run early in the second half - five points by Makedo Wisseh, three from Ryan Mee (all from the foul line) to pull within 36-35 six minutes into the period.
Washington got it back to six but Brian Jones made a conventional three-point play and followed with a layup to pull Rochester within 41-40 with 11:53 left.
It went back to 10 again, three different times, the last with 5:20 to go on Neal Griffin's jumper. Seth Hauben made one free throw, then put back his miss and Joe Canty followed with a trey to pull Rochester within 58-54 with 2:15 left.
The Bears negated the Canty trey when Rob Keller sank his third of the game, takign a step back to launch it. It pushed the lead back to seven.
Washington made 8 of 12 from the foul line in the last 1:25 as the Yellowjackets were forced to foul. Rochester did narrow it to five on Canty's second trey, and to two, 65-62, with 41 seconds left when Hauben knocked down a trey from the top of the key.
Hauben and Andy Larkin scored 14 apiece for Rochester. Hauben grabbed a season's high 18 rebounds, added five assists, six blocked shots, and three steals. Mee was Rochester's third double figure scorer. He had 10 points.
Keller and Grunst led Washington with 13 points apiece. Washington's bench outscored Rochester's reserves, 36-19.