The Judges opened up the season with two straight wins on the road, taking down the WPI Engineers on Sunday by 34 points and the Babson College Beavers on Tuesday by 10. Brandeis is ranked ninth in the country among Division III schools by D3hoops.com after coming off their best showing in the NCAA Tournament in school history.
Brandeis led by 19 with 8:34 remaining in the first half after guard Jessica Chapin ’10 made two from the foul line, but WPI stepped up the pressure to cut the visitors lead to just seven with 30 seconds remaining. Guard Diana Cincotta ’11 tacked on a three at 0:12 to bring Brandeis back up to a 10 point lead going into the second half.
The Engineers started up the second half with four points in under 50 seconds to cut the visitors lead back to seven, but from that point on the Judges offense stepped into high gear. After two jumpers by center Kasey Geischen ’10, Brandeis regained it’s double digit lead that it wouldn’t give up.
With 12 minutes left in the game, the Judges led by 20 points, but they weren’t done yet. In those last minutes they tacked on another 14 points thanks to forward Shannon Hassan ’12, guard Morgan Kendrew ’12, Geischen, and rookie forwards Samantha Anderson and Shannon Ingram for a final score of 66-32.
Geischen and Chapin had 12 points a piece on the night. Cincotta was close behind with 11, all of which came in the first half, while Kendrew went for 10. The Brandeis players outscored WPI 38-5 off the bench, which was a major factor in the huge victory and also a sign of the depth the Judges possess in their roster.
The Judges continued their success against local rival Babson in a 68-58 victory. The offense was led by Chapin who had a huge game with 33 points and six steals. She was 13-for-15 from the line and 9-for-19 from the floor, including a pair of trifectas.
Geischen had 12 points on the night while Kendrew had six and Hassan contributed four points and six rebounds in the Judges win.
The Beavers led 34-33 at the half, but the Judges opened up the second with eight straight points to take the lead. Babson tied it up two minutes later with just over 15 minutes left to play before Brandeis went back ahead, refusing to give up the lead for the rest of the game. While Babson kept the pressure up and managed to pull within one point, the Judges held on for the 10 point win.
The Judges will have their home opener at 6 p.m. on Friday in the first game of the Brandeis Invitational when they take on Wentworth.They will then face either Bates or Mount Holyoke on Saturday.