The Brandeis women’s basketball team defeated Emmanuel College, 72-67, Sunday in a home game after losing 54-51 to Tufts University on Nov. 28.

Against Emmanuel, Amber Strodthoff ’11 led the team with 15 points, six rebounds, a career- high four blocks and one assist, while Kelly Ethier ’12 had 14 points, four assists and three rebounds. Guard Janelle Rodriguez ’14 posted a career-high of 10 points, eight of which came in the second half, rounding out the double-figure scoring for the Judges (4-3). Rodriguez’ classmate Kasey Dean also recorded a career high of five rebounds and tied her career mark with six points. Ethier scored nine points in the second half to lead the team to victory.

For the Emmanuel Saints (2-3), guard Kristen Le Bel recorded the game-high with 27 points, and posted five steals, making 10-of-10 from the line. Also scoring in double digits was junior guard Meghan Kirwan with 17 points. Rookie forward Jasmine Burwell and sophomore forward Fiona O’Dwyer each had six rebounds, while guard Casey Shelvin led her squad with six assists. For the game, the Saints shot 21-54 from the floor (38.9 percent) and 17-18 from the line (94.4 percent).

The first half started out close, with the score tied 7-7 at 16:26. After three minutes, Rodriguez made a basket, with an assist from guard Julia Scanlon ’14 to put the Judges up by two. The Saints answered back with a long ball from Kirwan to put the visitors up 10-9, but a breakaway layup from sophomore Courtney Ness put Judges up by one, their last lead of the half at 11-10.

Starting at 12:29, a flurry of Brandeis turnovers helped the Saints outscore the hosts, 7-0. Lebel hit a three to regain the lead, 13-11. She followed up with a steal, sending the ball to Kirwan for the layup. A Brandeis foul sent Kirwan to the line for the three-point play, putting the Saints up 16-11. At 11:32, Lebel made two free throw shots to put her team up by seven. The Judges were able to whittled the deficit down to three points at 32-29 by halftime. Kirwan led all players with 11 points in the first, while Lebel added nine. Samantha Anderson ’13 helped keep the Judges in the game by eclipsing her career-high with eight points in just 13 minutes.

The Judges opened the second half with a three-pointer from forward Mia DePalo ’11 to tie the score, 32-32. The Saints answered back with a long ball of their own to begin an eight-point run at 19:22. In the first four minutes, Emmanuel outscored the Judges, 14-6, but the Judges were able to bounce back. At 8:36, Ethier delivered a shot from deep to give the Brandeis their first lead since the first half, 55-52

At 2:59, with the visitors up 63-61, O’Dwyer committed an offensive foul, turning over possession to the Judges. Ethier made a sure pass to Strodthoff, who hit the layup and drew the foul to put Brandeis up by one, 64-63. At 2:15, with the Saints in control of the ball, Rodriguez made a steal but missed the layup. Kendrew sent Le Bel to the line for two shots with an over-the-back foul, putting the visitors up 65-64. Ethier rebounded her own missed layup to regain the lead for the Judges with 1:44 left on the clock. After Ethier stole the ball, she fired a pass to Rodriguez, who nailed a shot from beyond the arc at the left elbow to put the score at 69-65 to win the game.

Earlier in the week, the Judges did not fair so well, falling to Tufts despite the efforts of guard Colleen Hart ’11, who scared 19 of her game-high 22 points in the second half.

The visiting Judges led 26-19 at the half behind 11 points from Morgan Kendrew ’12. They extended their lead to 35-25 on a layup by DePalo at the 14-minute mark of the second half. Brandeis was up nine (39-30) following a layup from Brighid Courtney ’12 with 11:18 to go in regulation.

Tufts’ comeback began with a three-pointer by Hart and back-to-back baskets by junior Tiffany Kornegay had the Jumbos within 39-37 with 7:25 left. Four straight free throws by the Jumbos tied the game at 41-41 with 5:22 on the clock. That was the closest Tufts had been since a 15-15 tie with 6:55 remaining until halftime.

Brandeis scored the next five points to lead 46-41 on Kendrew’s jumper at 4:35, but the Jumbos worked it down again to force a 48-48 tie on Hart’s three-pointer at 2:36. Hart then drained a jumper that gave Tufts its first lead (50-48) in 25 minutes of action. Two free throws by Hart with 50 seconds on the clock put the Jumbos up 52-48.

The Judges scored the next three points on two free-throws by DePalo and another from Kendrew to pull within 52-51 with 20 seconds remaining. Tufts’ Kornegay was fouled after grabbing the rebound of a missed free-throw by Brandeis, but she missed two at the other end. Brandeis called time-out with 14 seconds remaining to draw up a play. Kendrew created her own space for a jumper, but it was off the mark and Hart got the rebound. She added two freebies for the Jumbos for the 54-51 final.

Kendrew finished with 17 points to lead Brandeis (3-3). Strodthoff had 11 of her 14 points in the second half for the Judges. The visitors won the battle of the boards 43-39, with DePalo’s 12 the game-high.

Hart added six rebounds and four assists to her scoring total. Collier Clegg ’13 also scored in double digits for Tufts with 14. She also grabbed six boards to share the team lead. Ali Rocchi ’14 had eight points on 4-for-8 shooting. Despite shooting 29 percent (18-62) shooting overall, Tufts (2-1) turned the ball over just eight times.