Sports: Basketball

Season of Honors

After each spent time ranked as high as No. 1 during the regular season and each went undefeated at home, the Rochester men’s and women’s basketball teams finished their 2003–04 campaigns with postseason play.

The women finished third in the country, rallying to a 64–63 victory over second-ranked Wisconsin–Stevens Point in the NCAA Division III third-place game at the Final Four.

The men were upended in the Sweet 16 round of the national tournament, losing to a hot-shooting Keene State College of New Hampshire, 82–79. The Yellowjackets finished 25–2.

The double dose of basketball success produced a winter of excitement at the Palestra and resulted in a full roster of postseason honors for the Yellowjackets.

Erika Smith ’04 was named a WBCA/Kodak first team All-American for the second straight year, second team All-American by D3Hoops.com, and honorable mention All-American by DIII News. Smith and Kelly Wescott ’05 were named first team All-East Region by the WBCA and D3Hoops.com.

Seth Hauben ’05 was named a first team All-American by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and by Basketball Times, the official publication of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. He was a second team All-American choice of DIII News.

Hauben and Andy Larkin ’04 were named first team All-East Region by the NABC and by D3Hoops.com. Gabe Perez ’05 was named first team All-East by D3Hoops.com and second team All-East by the NABC and also was one of three Division III finalists for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame’s Bob Cousy Senior Male Point Guard of the Year Award.

Hauben and Smith were ECAC Upstate New York Players of the Year. Larkin, Perez, and Wescott were named to the respective ECAC All-Star teams. Smith and Wescott were named first team All-UAA. Hauben, Larkin, and Perez were on the UAA first team, and Hauben was men’s UAA Player of the Year.

For more on the Yellowjackets, visit www.rochester.edu/athletics.