Brandeis University’s men’s team continued their exceptionally charmed season on January 12, picking up their first UAA victory with a 66-56 defeat over the New York University Violets.
Joe Coppens ’08 led a balanced Judges attack with 17 points and six rebounds while guard Kevin Olson ’09 helped out with nine points and Andre Roberson ’10 provided eight points off the bench. Kwame-Graves Fulgham ’08 and Terrell Hollins ’10 each had seven points of their own.
The game started rough for the Judges, who quickly found themselves down by nine with 11:13 left in the first half. However Brandeis was able to turn it around, going on a 14-3 run to close out the first half, including a three pointer by Florian Rexhepi ’08 with five seconds left, to give Brandeis a 34-28 lead.
The second half saw no such hiccups as the Judges opened up with a 9-4 run to build their lead up to 11. The Violets managed to claw back to within a basket with five minutes left, but could come no closer and Brandeis walked away with their fourth straight victory.
Richie Polan led the losing effort with a game high 22 points and a team high six rebounds. Guard Charlie Parker was the next highest scorer for NYU with nine.
Brandeis shot a season high 60 percent from the field and was eight of 16 on three point attempts; Coppens had four of them.
The win comes after Brandeis opened the year needing two overtime sessions to get past Elms College 96-94. Coppens had a career high 37 points on 11 of 16 shooting and six three pointers. Terrell Hollins helped out with a double-double, 20 points and a game high 12 rebounds; his missed free throw, though, denied him the chance to end the game in regulation.
The man of the moment was instead Andre Roberson; making his first collegiate start, Roberson had 12 points, including the game winning three pointer with three seconds left in the second overtime. Forward Stephen Hill ’08 had ten points off the bench.
Elms College was led by a triumvirate of Juan Galdon with 24 points; and Aswad Thomas and Joe Esile with 21 each.
Brandeis hits the road next, taking on Carnegie Mellon tonight at 8 p.m. and on January 20th, a widely anticipated match-up against number one seed Rochester.
