Rockford, Ill. — The UConn Avery Point women's basketball team outlasted its opponent Thursday by scoring 98 points. Now, the Pointers have to do it all over again Friday.

"Exhausting," Avery Point coach George Hardison said. "The kids are exhausted. I'm tired. We've got to come back and do it again tomorrow. So we gotta go home and rest up."

Third-seeded Avery Point, which tailed by nine after the first quarter, came back to beat No. 6 Rochester (Minn.) Community and Technical College 98-93 in the quarterfinals of the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III Women's Basketball Championship.

Avery Point (24-6) advanced to the semifinals of the tournament, where it will meet No. 2 Hostos Community College of the Bronx at 9 p.m. Friday. The Pointers fell to Hostos 101-94 in a regular-season game played Nov. 11 in Groton. Thursday's win was the first at the national tournament in program history.

The winner of that semifinal game will play either No. 1 Rock Valley College, the host team, or No. 5 Northland Community and Technical College of Minnesota in the championship game Saturday night.

Against Rochester, the game was tied 44-44 at halftime, with Avery Point outscoring Rochester 27-18 in the second quarter, and 74-74 after three quarters.

Former Waterford standout Mia Brennan scored 20 points, Taleeha Green had 19 points and Meagan Bianchi had 17 points and nine assists for trhe Pointers.

"The same keys we've had in every game all year," Hardison said, asked what the key factors were in the game. "Defend, rebound, control the game and finish. ... That was a good Rochester team. They hit big shots down the stretch. They made sure it was interesting. They absolutely made sure we earned that game."

Playing in the nationals for the first time since 2009, Avery Point earned its trip with a 74-69 victory March 4 over defending champion Roxbury (Mass.) Community College for the Region 21 title. Taty LaFrance Boyce, a 2016 Stonington High School graduate, led the Pointers with 30 points in that game and was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player.