Brandeis (6-4, 0-1 UAA) trailed just once in the first half as the Judges opened up a 10-point lead late in the opening stanza. With the shot clock off at the end of the period, rookie guard Kwame Graves-Fulgham (Amherst, Mass.) hit a driving lay-up with nine seconds left to put the hosts ahead, 37-28. Rochester (8-2, 1-1 UAA) answered with a key 3-pointer at the buzzer by sophomore guard Tim Brackney (Columbia, Md.), a hoop that would prove to be pivotal. Lambert led all players with 12 points in the first, while rookie reserve guard Florian Rexhepi (Skopje, Macedonia) had 12 points. UR freshman center Jon Onyiriuka (Painted Post, N.Y.) had nine points to led the ‘Jackets.
Rochester (8-2, 1-1 UAA) faced its biggest deficit of the game when Lambert opened the second with a 3-pointer and then assists rookie Rocco Toppi (Portland, Maine) to give the Judges a 44-33 lead less than a minute into the half. The visitors responded with a 12-2 run over the next six minutes that was capped by a trifecta from senior Gabe Perez (Corpus Christi, Texas). Lambert answer with his fourth bucket from beyond the arc to get the Judges’ lead back to four, while a lay-up got the margin back to six at 51-45 with 10:59 on the clock. Both teams hit a dry spell, failing to score on their next three possessions.
Brandeis was unable to pull away over that stretch, and Rochester climbed back to within one with 6:08 thanks to senior Ryan Mee’s (Hilton, N.Y.)trifecta. This time it was Rochester’s turn to miss opportunities, as the Yellowjackets, trailing 53-52, had three chances to regain the lead before Lambert expanded the lead again to three points off a UR turnover. Rochester senior forward Seth Hauben (Newton, Mass.) answered with a lay-up on the following possession, while a steal by UR’s Jeff Juron (Niskayuna, N.Y.) led to a junior Joe Canty’s second long-distance hoop of the game at the 2:55 mark, giving the visitors their first lead since the first half.
Lambert answered the call with his fifth trifecta of the contest to put the Judges up by one. The ensuing possession gave UR the lead for good, as Hauben hit the front end of a one-and-one. He missed the second, but a long rebound went to Oyiriuka. The ‘Jackets worked the ball around the perimeter to Canty, who hit from downtown with 1:05 on the clock to give the visitors a lead they wouldn’t relinquish, 61-58. Lambert answered with his final bucker of the night the next time down to cut the lead to one. After Juron missed the second of two free throws, the Judges were in a position to tie or take the lead, but Hauben forced a turnover. After UR hit two more free throws with eight seconds on the clock, Brandeis rookie Joe Coppens (Rockland, Mass.) hit a desperation 3-pointer from the corner with 3.2 seconds left. Perez missed the front end of the one-and-one with 2.7 seconds left, but Graves-Fulgham’s half-court buzzer-beater hit off the backboard to give Rochester the win.
Lambert led all scorers with 29 points, hitting 12-of-20 from the floor and five-of-10 from beyond the arc, while pulling down six rebounds. Rexhepi was the only other Brandeis player in double figures with 12 points, but only two came in the second half. Rookie Jake Kaplan (Roanoke, Va.) led the Judges with seven rebounds.
Hauben led Rochester with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Three other UR players scored 11 points, as Canty, Onyuriuka and Mee all reached the figure. Onyiriuka recorded the Yellowjackets other double-double with 10 rebounds. Rochester outscored Brandeis 7-0 from the line in the second half en route to the victory despite shooting just 36 percent from the floor (22-61).