It was a crucial moment for the men’s basketball, with five straight games on the road, the Judges needed to come out unified and strong in order to compete for a postseason bid. As of now, their chances of an Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) championship appearance are remote after first getting upended by Chicago 81-90 and then were outmatched and outmanned with five suspended players and no answer in a 57-82 rout at the hands of Washington University.
Prior to the Wash U game, Andre Roberson ’10, Terrell Hollins ’10, Kenny Small ’10, Christian Yemga ’11 and Napoleon Lherrison ’11 were all suspended by the team for violation of team rules. Lherrison and Yemga are also benched for tonight’s match against Carnegie Mellon.
The trouble though began in Chicago, five days removed from a 67-36 dismantling of the Maroons at Gosman Gym; Brandeis found themselves facing down an old problem – inability to guard against the three.
Chicago converted 17 of 26 attempts with John Kinsella and Michael Sustaric combining for 10-13 from three and led the scoring with 22 and 19 points respectively.
All of the Chicago starters reached double digits in scoring.
Kevin Olson ’09 led the offensive effort with 22 points on the strength of six three pointers. Roberson picked up a double-double with 14 points, 10 assists. Steve DeLuca (GRAD) was limited to 12 points in 21 minutes, falling into foul trouble. Small and Yemga had 12 and 11 points respectively.
The Judges shot 60 percent in the game but the three pointers proved to be the critical difference. Brandeis was also limited to ten trips to the free throw line while Chicago earned 21 attempts in the second half alone.
With the suspensions, Coach Meehan trotted out a jury-rigged line up with rookies Tyrone Hughes ’12 and Vytas Kryskus ’12 taking over at guard and forward and Rich Magee ’10 manning the middle. Kryskus matched his career high with 15 points and Hughes had 14 but it wasn’t enough as the number two ranked Bears shot 59 percent in the game including 55 percent from the three point line leading to the 25 point defeat.
Tyler Nading lead Washington with 15 points and center Zach Kelly was one point shy of reaching double digits in scoring along with the rest of the starters.
Now 5-4 in conference play, the Judges will hope that the next leg of the road trip is more forgiving as they take on Carnegie Mellon tonight on Feb. 13 at 8:00 pm and then up to upstate New York on Feb. 15 for a noon contest.
Brandeis returns home Feb. 20 hosting Emory and then Case Western on Feb. 22.
