The Brandeis women’s basketball team fell short against the New York University Violets in New York on Sunday in the last game of the regular season, ending their four game winning streak. In the end NYU outscored the Judges for a 62-49 UAA victory. With the loss Brandeis ended their season with a 17-7 record overall, 7-7 in the UAA while NYU ended at 21-4 and 10-4 in UAA play.
The Judges started off the game strong. Helped along with two buckets each by Lauren Orlando ’09 and Cassidy Dadaos ’09 Brandeis scored 10 of the first 12 points in the first five minutes. They held onto the lead, pulling as far away as 25-12 off a three pointer by Jessica Chapin ’10 with 5:48 left in the first half. At that point, however, NYU began chipping away at the deficit and, after scoring the last 11 points, cut the Judges lead to only two points at 25-23 at the break.
Unfortunately for Brandeis, NYU continued their offensive momentum into the second half and scored the first nine points. After back-to-back lay ups by NYU forward Jessica McEntee ’09, the Violets held a 32-25 lead with 17:04 left in the game and would not give up the lead from that point forward. The Judges made several attempts to close the gap, coming within three points of tying the game a few times. The first came off a lay up by Chapin, which made it a 42-39 game with just over nine minutes left. The Violets had again pushed the lead back up, this time to 50-41, when Brandeis went on a six-point run and with 3:37 to go Amber Strodthoff ’11 hit a jumper that made it a 50-47 game. Despite these hard fought runs, the Judges couldn’t keep going and NYU ended the game by scoring 12 of the last 14 points for the 62-49 win.
NYU held Brandeis to a season-low 49 points for the second time, the first being a 61-49 victory over the Judges here at Brandeis on January 17. In spite of the unusually low score, Brandeis did have two players reach double figures. Chapin had a double-double in the game with 12 points and a career-high 17 rebounds as well as three steals and two assists. Diana Cincotta ’11 scored 10 points, including a trifecta and making 3-of-4 from the line. The Violets were paced by McEntee who achieved double-double status in the first half with an impressive 13 points and 10 rebounds before adding an additional 14 points and seven rebounds in the second. Both teams received berths in the NCAA Tournament, which begins this weekend, and will host their respective games. NYU will face off against Salve Regina and the winner of that matchup will play the winner of the Mary Washington/Stevens game. Brandeis will take on Western Connecticut Friday night at 7 P.M. after Mount St. Mary plays Brockport State at 5 P.M. The winners will face each other Saturday afternoon at 5 P.M.
