The Judges continued their recent success this past week, destroying their opponents by an average of 17.3 points per game in their wins over Becker College, Lasell College and Massachusetts College of the Liberal Arts (MCLA). With the wins, the Judges improve to 7-1 on the season. Their lone loss coming in the first game of the season against Rhode Island College.
Against Becker last Saturday, the Judges jumped out to an early lead after a pair of free throws from Ben Bartoldus ’14. Becker, however, responded with hot perimeter shooting and a scoring run to take the lead. The game featured contrasting styles as the Judges attempted to pound the ball inside the paint to utilize the substantial size advantage while Becker focused on their streaky outside shooters in an effort to negate the Judges’ advantage.
The Judges took a four-point lead into halftime after closing out the first half with a 5-1 run. In the second half, the Judges continued to feed their players down low while Becker continued their streaky shooting from beyond the arc to stay in the game. The Judges, however, pulled away behind their own perimeter shooters. Guard Derek Retos ’14 put on a shooting clinic in the second half, knocking down six three-pointers to give the Judges a double-digit lead that they would not relinquish as they went on to defeat Becker 77-62.
After failing to register double-digit points through the first five games of the season, Retos went 7 for 11 from the field, with all of his shots made from beyond the arc, while also nailing two free throws. Center Youri Dascy ’14 finished with 12 points, four rebounds and a block on 5 for 5 shooting. Guard Gabriel Moton ’14 stuffed the stat sheet with 12 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Forward Alex Stoyle ’14 grabbed eight boards while forward Kevin Trotman ’16 added a career-high eight points off of the bench.
In their next game, the Judges traveled to face Lasell College. Retos once again had the hot hand for the Judges, nailing seven three-pointers—for the second game in a row—while tying a career-high with 28 points.
For most of the first half, the Judges had struggled to create separation as they held a slim 10-9 advantage. With 10 minutes to go in the half, they used a mammoth 21-6 run to close out any worry. Retos punctuated this by taking a 31-15 advantage into the locker room.
Retos nearly single-handedly outscored the Lasers as he posted 14 points before the break.
Coming out of the locker room, Lasell scored the first nine points of the second half to cut their deficit to seven, but Dascy responded by scoring the next seven points for the Judges to push their lead back to double-digits. Lasell would continue to attempt to make runs but the Judges responded each time. Retos finally put the game away with a pair of back-to-back three-pointers near the 10-minute mark of the second half to give the Judges a 15-point lead they would not give up.
In addition to Retos’ hot hand, Moton contributed 12 points, four rebounds and three assists while Dascy contributed nine points and a game-high eight rebounds.
The Judges returned home the next day for a matchup against MCLA.
The first half of the game was tightly contested as the Judges took a slim two-point lead into halftime behind 11 first-half points from Bartoldus.
In the the second half, however, the Judges put on their best shooting performance of the season as they shot a blistering 65 percent from the field, connecting on 16 of their first 22 shots. Stoyle and Dascy dropped 13 and 12 points respectively in the second half while Retos tallied eight of his 10 points in the second frame. In a combined effort, the trio went 10 for 15 in the second half as the Judges outscored the Trailblazers 52-33 on their way to a convincing 86-65 victory.
Guard Colby Smith ’16 led all players with seven dimes while Stoyle matched his career-best with five assists. Wouter van der Eng ’13 finished with six points and six boards as Brandeis once again made an advantage of their size, rebounding the Trailblazers 35-31 and outscoring them in the paint 30-16. Bartoldus led all players with 18 points while also leading the Judges with seven rebounds.
Brandeis will return to action on Saturday as they travel to take on Amherst at 3 p.m. The Judges next home game will be on Jan. 5 against NYU in their first UAA contest of the season.
