Coming into this past weekend, with a losing conference record and on the heels of a disappointing loss at home, it was imperative that the Judges recover and show that they could bounce back. Not only bounce back but win convincingly if they wanted to keep the goal of advancing to the NCAAs alive. They managed to do so with victories against Case Western and Emory.
After some early struggles, Brandeis managed to pull away from the always scrappy Emory Eagles, 73-59. Rookie Jessica Chapin 10 took her game to new heights, scoring a career high 18 points off the bench as well as five rebounds and four assists. The bulk of her scoring came from going four out of nine from the three point line.
Shes just doing a really nice job and is really opening things up for us Coach Simon said about Chapin afterwards.
Also reaching double point figures for Brandeis was Jamie Capra 08, collecting 15 points, five assists and five rebounds and Lauren Orlando 09 who has continued her domination in the lane with 13 points and a team leading nine rebounds. Largely absent from the stat sheet was Caitlin Malcolm 07. Nursing a hairline fracture in her nose and sporting a face-shield, Malcolm defied expectations just by showing up for the game. She managed four points and eight rebounds in limited action.
The game started and remained a tight affair. Emory drew first blood but Orlando had a three in response. After a three point shot by Emorys Katie Rizzo gave the Eagles a one point lead, Brandeis went on a 13-2 run fueled by two threes by Chapin and Brandeis left the half with a 37-23 lead. Emory refused to stay down though and by the time Coach Carol Simon issued a time out, something she is loath to do, Brandeis clung to a 41-37 lead.
Theyre a real natty, athletic team, Simon said about Emory, what I thought we did well was to get passes and really get it to the open player thought we did a good job doing that.
The Judges managed to push the lead back to nine thanks to the timely shooting and good ball handling. Emory cut that lead to five but back to back threes by Amanda Wells 09 and Chapin put the game out of reach.
The game comes two days after the 85-58 drubbing Brandeis gave Case Western Reserve University. Capra exploded for 25 points in 28 minutes of action and also pulled down nine rebounds. Lauren Orlando provided 13 of her own and rookie guard Lauren Rashford 10 provided some spark from the bench with eight points and five assists. Brandeis never trailed against Case Western and dominated the boards, collecting 54 to Cases 20. A 24-2 run in the final minutes of the first half followed with an 11-2 run to start the second half put the game securely in Brandeiss hands.
With the wins, Brandeis now moves up into the middle of the UAA but their schedule only gets harder from here as they hit the road. Their road swing starts in St. Louis where the Judges face off against last year's UAA champs, Washington University tonight. Then, Sunday finds the Judges in Chiacgo where they take division leading, number 4 ranked Chicago University. This is the first meeting this year between Washington University and Brandeis;
Washington swept Brandeis in both contests last year though graduations have weakened this years squad.
The key will be in how they respond when their opponents have their spurts. As Coach Simon stated, Theyre games of peaks and valleys and its just dependent on how long the valleys are going to be and we got to keep the spurts short. I thought we did a good job of that today [January 21].
