After going 1-1 on the weekend, the women’s basketball team improves their record to 7-10 and 3-4 in UAA play. The Judges struggled in their first match of the weekend against the Emory Eagles, losing 70-57. With this game, Brandeis fell to 6-10 and 2-4 in UAA play, while Emory improved to 12-5 and 3-3 in UAA. Brandeis came out with a close win against the University of Rochester, 56-52. The Judges improved to 7-10 and 3-4 in UAA play while the University of Rochester fell to 8-19 and 2-5 in UAA.
The Judges led the game during the first half, leading 35-28 before creating a large deficit in the third quarter, leading to their loss. Led by starter Kat Puda ’21 with 16 points, this was Puda’s third double-digit scoring game of the season and one point shy of her career-best, 17 points. Camila Casanueva ’21 contributed 14 points overall to the game, seven of which came in the final quarter of the game. Puda and Casanueva each had seven rebounds during the game, but rebounds were led by Hannah Nicholson ’20, who scored nine.
Other starters including Sarah Jaromin ’19, Nicholson and Samira Abdelrehim ’21 contributed to scoring, adding on six, four and two points, respectively.
Lauren Rubinstein ’20, Kerry Tanke ’22 and Maya Burris ’22 from the reserves also contributed points to The Judges’ score during the game. Rubinstein contributed six points, one rebound and one assist; Tanke added five points and Burris scored four points. All three also had one steal during their time in the game.
Brandeis’ defense faired well in the first quarter, holding the Eagles to three of 15 from the field, helping The Judges to a 14-8 lead after the first quarter. Brandeis connected 50 percent of their shots in the second quarter, while Emory hit almost 60 percent. The Judges were still able to hold their lead going into halftime.
In the end, it was the Eagles that outshot Brandeis, with 42 percent to Brandeis’ 35 percent. Emory also had 21 assists throughout the game on their 25 baskets, while The Judges only had five assists on 21 baskets.
A tighter second match showed the depth of The Judges as they won out against the Yellowjackets.
Puda again was the high scorer for The Judges, landing 14 points throughout the game. Jaromin was the second high scorer for The Judges, scoring 10 points and one rebound. Casanueva contributed three rebounds, one assist and two steals for a total of nine points while Nicholson scored two points along with 10 rebounds, one assist and one steal.
Burris was a high scorer for the reserves, scoring nine points and one steal for The Judges.
Brandeis had a comfortable lead after the first quarter, scoring 18 points compared to University of Rochester’s 13. Twelve of the 18 points came from Puda and Casanueva. The Judges shot 50 percent from the field compared to University of Rochester’s 24 percent.
The Judges lost their footing in the second quarter, holding only 13 percent from the the floor, while the Yellowjackets held 28 percent.
The second half of the game started off slow for both teams, neither having a strong lead in the competition. However, free throws from both teams swapped lay-ups before The Judges hit enough free throws to maintain the lead and score the win.
A key strength in Brandeis’ performance was their efficiency of turnovers, converting nine of University of Rochester’s miscues into 15 points, while the Yellowjackets were only able to convert four points from either turnovers.
With the win by the men’s team against University of Rochester that same day, the basketball teams received their first sweep of Rochester since 2010 and only the third ever, with the previous one in 2009.
The Judges will face Emory and University of Rochester once again this weekend at home. The game against Emory will be on Friday, Feb. 1 at 6 p.m. and against University of Rochester on Superbowl Sunday, Feb. 3 at 2 p.m.
