When Brandeis crushed Emory at home back in January, Coach Simon told me after the game that at worst Brandeis could afford one more loss if they want to win the UAA. Their one loss is up.
On their latest road swing, Brandeis was upset by the Emory Eagles on Friday, 62-52. This defeat drops the now 15th ranked Judgess (15-3, 6-3) into a three-way tie for second with New York University and Rochester and is another setback in their hopes of catching up to Washington University. The weekend was saved though with a victory over Case-Western 58-52.
When they last played, Brandeis destroyed Emory. Emory made sure not to repeat their January 29th performance. After Brandeis finished the first half with a 31-26 lead, Emory began with a 70 run to go up by two. Brandeis managed to come within a basket, 47-45 with five minutes remaining, but Kendall Boyd '09 nailed a three-pointer and it was over as Emory grinded to a 10 point victory.
Forward Lora Turner 09 continued her dominance against Brandeis, putting up 16 points and grabbing 8 rebounds. Point guard Beth Bergmann 06 added 14 points of her own while Lynn Oberschmidt 06 had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
For Brandeis, Caitlin Malcolm 07 recorded her 1,000th point, the fastest in school history, in a 19 point, 11 rebound performance. No one else reached double-digits for Brandeis, save for Christine Clancy 06 who had 10 rebounds. Jaime Capra 08 had 9 points but fouled out in the final minute of play.
Normally, turnovers have caused previous Judges defeats, but this time it was moribund shooting. No one on Brandeis shot the ball well, with Malcolm going 4-17 from the field (the bulk of her points coming from free throws), Capra going 2-10 and Clancy shooting 2-13 in field goal attempts.
In the second half, Brandeis registered only 5 field goals out of 27 attempts good for a paltry 18.5% conversion rate. Even worse were their three point stats overall (2-15).
With only a day in between, Brandeis managed to regroup and defeat Case-Western. For the game, Coach Simon made a change with the starting line-up, inserting Kiersten Holgash 08 in place of Alison Chase 07.
In the first twenty minutes, Brandeis managed to shut out Case-Westerns top scorers Amber Hammell 06 and Dana Dempsey 07 while building up a 31-21 lead going into intermission.
In the second half, the shooting woes that doomed Brandeis against Emory flared up again, as they only converted on 7 of 25 attempts. The second half was made more perilous by Hammell and Dempsey regaining their scoring touch to combine for 19 points. Yet the Judges regained their shooting form down the stretch, to salvage a split on their two game road swing.
Clancy led Brandeis with 14 points and tied Capra in rebounds with 6 for each of them. Malcolm tallied 10 points and 4 rebounds in the paint, while also converting 4-5 free throws. Amanda DeMartino '06 chipped in with her usual contribution of 9 points and 5 assists.
For Case, Hammell and reserve Andrea Haylett each had 10 points. Forward Ashley Horton had a game-high 13 rebounds, which contributed to the 42-40 edge Case had in boards. Case was shaky from the free throw line, making only 9 of 17, and had only one three pointer for the entire game, while Brandeis shot 17-24 from the line.
