The Brandeis Women’s Basketball team’s NCAA hopes took another hit as they finished their two game road trip with a brutal loss to Rochester 77-61 on Sunday. The loss came after Brandeis picked up its first UAA win Friday at the expense of Carnegie-Mellon 74-58.
The Judges started strong, continuing their positive momentum from Friday by jumping out to a 22-14 lead in the first half. Rochester, though, demonstrated why it’s one of the toughest teams out there, going on an 8-0 run to tie the game up at 24 apiece and the half ended knotted up 30-30.
The second half saw Rochester jump out to a five point lead, but Brandeis kept it close and even managed to cut the deficit to one. Unfortunately, Brandeis could come no closer as Rochester tormented them inside and outside and walked away with the victory.
“Two minutes of mental lapses,” Coach Carol Simon explained when asked about the game. “I thought we ran a good offense. You can’t have mental lapses against a team like Rochester.”
Jessica Chapin ’10 led the Brandeis offense with 16 points and a team high eight rebounds on 6 of 14 shooting. Cassidy Dadaos ’09 led the interior play with 10 points. Jaime Capra ’08 had a rough game with 12 points on 4 of 15 shooting and Lauren Orlando ’09 made only one shot in 10 attempts.
The Yellowjackets were led by the interior duo of Alex Porter and Julie Mariott, who each had 14 points, and Porter also had a game high of nine rebounds. Melissa Alwardt sparked the offense with 20 points off the bench. The team shot 60 percent in the second half including a deadly 57 percent from three point range.
“Our posts did not shoot well,” Simon said. “You have to have an inside and outside game in order to be competitive…With them [Rochester], you can’t defend their posts one-on-one, you’ve got to rotate quickly to not allow the easy baskets or shooters like Baroody and Alwardt from having open shots.”
The loss follows a solid Brandeis victory over Carnegie-Mellon. Carmela Breslin ’10 had 13 points off the bench as every Judge got to see some action on the floor against the Tartans. Coach Simon praised Breslin, stating that she has “the smartest basketball sense out there.”
The Judges hope to rebound at home as they take on University of Chicago tonight at 6 p.m. and Washington University on Sunday at 2 p.m..
Despite the loss to Rochester, Coach Simon is not worried about the team’s playoff chances stating that it’s too early and “when we’re disciplined, we’re a good team.”
