PHOTO BY Nafiz Ahmed
The Judges started off their weekend away by taking on the Case Western Reserve University Spartans on Friday night in Cleveland. Brandeis opened the game by taking the lead and holding onto it for the first four and a half minutes of play before Case responded with a three-pointer to grab a one point lead. The two conference teams traded baskets for the next five minutes until, with 9:50 remaining in the first, Case went on an unanswered eight point run to grab a seven-point lead over the visiting Judges.
Brandeis would not be silenced. The Judges fought back to take the lead twice and tie the game once before the Spartans eventually closed out the stanza with a 35-29 advantage.
The Spartans continued to play hard in the first part of the second half, climbing to a 12-point lead of 48-36 eight minutes in. Brandeis began to slowly climb back and chipped away at their hosts’ lead and brought themselves within five points thanks to a jumper in the paint by guard Andre Roberson ’10 with 5:11 left on the clock.
The next few minutes were rough as Brandeis continued to claw their way to a lead, getting within a single point on four separate occasions. Each time the Spartans responded with shots of their own. Guard Tyrone Hughes ’12 sunk two from the line with four seconds on the clock to bring the game to 62-61 Case Western. A Case player was able to make one of his own from the line, though, and made the final score Case 63, Brandeis 61.
Terrell Hollins ’10 led the Judges with his fifth-straight double-double with 13 points and the game-high 12 rebounds. Roberson also put up 13 points and had a game-high six assists. Hughes tacked on 12 points, including making all three three-pointer attempts.
After the disappointment of Friday night Brandeis moved onto Pittsburgh to take on the Carnegie Mellon University Tartans on Sunday afternoon. Both teams started off slowly as no one was able to get on the board for nearly four minutes. The Tartans got first blood and held off the visitors even with three ties in less than two minutes.
The Judges finally took their first lead of the game off a jumper by Christian Yemga ’11 a little more than seven minutes into play. From that point on Brandeis would not allow their hosts to regain the lead. Carnegie Mellon got within a single point with just over six left to play before the break but Vytas Kriskus ’12 responded with a layup off an assist from Roberson. Brandeis went into the lockers with a 29-22 lead.The Tartans began the second half strongly, going on a 6-0 run in just less than two minutes to bring the game within three points. The Judges kept their cool. Hollins nailed four foul shots in thirty seconds to bring the game to 37-30.
The teams traded baskets for most of the second half until Brandeis broke things open in the last five minutes. The Judges stunned the Tartans by holding them without a single point for the remainder of the game while they went on an unanswered 15-point run to finish things up with a 62-43 win.
With the win the men set their own school record: 76 wins for the senior class. Roberson, Hollins, Kenny Small, Richard Magee and John Weldon became the winningest set of seniors in school history.
Hollins also recorded his sixth-consecutive double-double with 17 points and a career-high 19 rebounds. Small put up 12 points while Kriskus and Hughes tallied 11 and 10 off the bench respectively. Roberson had a game-high seven assists.
After splitting the road trip the Judges hosted Amherst on Tuesday night. The Lord Jeffs scored the first basket of the night, snagging a three-pointer just six seconds into the game. Small responded with one of his own half a minute later to tie things up before Roberson nailed a jumper less than three minutes in to give the Judges their first lead of the game. They would not trail again throughout the contest.
Amid jeers from Brandeis fans telling Amherst to bring out their number one ranked women’s basketball team to “make things fair,” the Judges continued to tack on the points. The Lord Jeffs certainly seemed to be struggling, at one point missing three attempted shots within the paint before Hollins took the ball down the court to tack on an additional two points for the hosts. The Judges finished up the first half with a 35-27 lead.
Brandeis opened the second stanza with nine unanswered points in less than three minutes and a 13-2 run in the first four thanks to shifting to a full-court press. Again, the Lord Jeffs were struggling against the Brandeis defense as the Judges continued their hot streak. With just more than two minutes left to play Amherst missed four straight layup attempts right under the net.
Although the visitors were finally able to tack on four points in the last minute of play, Brandeis held on to grab a 71-55 win.
Hollins continued his double-double streak, now at seven, with 21 points and 11 rebounds after connecting on 10-of-14 from the floor. For his leadership on the court this week Hollins was named one of the UAA Players of the Week. He is now just one assist away from reaching 200 career assists. When he reaches that mark he will be the just the third player in school history to reach 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 200 assists in his career.
Small put up 16 points in the win while Roberson and Hughes had 11 each. Roberson led the game with three steals and Hughes matched Hollins with five assists.
Brandeis will continue their conference play this weekend when they face off against the Washington University of St. Louis at 8 p.m. on Friday night before facing the University of Chicago at noon on Sunday.
