You will not find her name printed all over the womens basketball game summaries on the athletic page of the Brandeis web site. When casually talking about the Brandeis womens hoops team, there are probably five names more likely to come up before hers does. Forget being included in the Sports Illustrated Faces In The Crowd section. She is practically a face in the crowd of Brandeis ladies basketball.
This young lady is none other than senior co-captain Catherine Brady. This past Saturday in front of a pumped up crowd of 650 at the Gosman Arena, the Judges defeated Fitchburg State 91-65 and captured their second consecutive ECAC Title behind a brilliant performance by the 5'8″ guard out of East Rockaway, NY. In a meager eleven minutes, the soft-spoken Brady nailed five of seven from three point territory, finishing with 15 points on the afternoon. Rather than feeling sorry for herself over seeing a very small amount of playing time, Brady fired seven quality shots from international waters. She worked off screens and moved well without the ball to give herself those good, open looks at the hoop. Five of those seven shots found the bottom of the net. Not too shabby. Throw in two rebounds and a forced turnover, and it was not a bad way for this lady Judge to cap off a solid career at Brandeis.
Brady is no stranger to success from three point land. In her junior year she led the team with a remarkable 40 three-pointers, which was good for fourth in the UAA. It also happened to be the second best single-season mark in three point shooting in Judges team history. Her three point shooting percentage was even stronger the year before, when she shot an impressive 33 percent from international waters. Forget any sophomore slump. This year she kept the scorekeepers hands busy thirty five times when she launched the three ball. Her skillful three point shooting is also conducive to forcing the opposing defenses to open up and create more opportunities for the Judges offensive attack. It is no coincidence that after the intermission, when Brady was knocking down threes left and right, Fitchburg State was only able to put up 31 points on a dismal shooting percentage of 29.4.
Talk about being time efficient. Brady played a paltry six minutes in the first half, then even fewer minutes in the second stanza. One has to wonder what coach Simon was thinking when she played someone like the struggling Cassie Loftus (2 points, 3 rebounds) twice as many minutes as Brady. Okay, Brady committed four turnovers and went 0-2 from the free throw line. Big deal. No apparent injuries for Brady. No foul trouble. Now no more chances to throw on the Brandeis blue for Ms.Brady. What else did she have to do to stay in, put on a three point clinic for the obnoxiously loud young kids to quiet them down when Brandeis was trying to call out plays? When Brady left the court with under two minutes remaining in the game, it was evident from the booming standing ovation she received that the Brandeis faithful knew how valuable she was in helping the Judges blow open a lead in the second half.
Playing the supporting role is nothing new for Brady in her tenure with the Judges. Up until her junior year, she never even averaged 15 minutes or 5 points per game during a season. Being the Morgan Freeman of the womens Basketball team is just fine for Brady. Although her forte is long range shooting, when asked to penetrate and create havoc down low for defenders, she is more than serviceable. She also has the ability to spread the floor and open up defenses with her quickness and perimeter shooting ability. Night in and night out she puts forth a relentless effort on the defensive side of the ball. Doing whatever it takes to improve the players around her is her true forte.
Not to take anything away from the studs on the Judges squad. The three-headed monster of Jamie Capra, Caitlin Malcolm, and Christine Clancy had a combined forty five points and twenty six rebounds combined. Sophomore guard Basia Grzyb had a strong outing, as she chipped in with six points and three rebounds. However, had it not been for Bradys mastery from behind the arc, there would have been no traditional cutting down of the nets for Coach Simon and her
troops.
Once the dust had settled at Red Auerbach Arena beloved fan Alan (at least by us) was trying to start a Next Year in Springfield chant amongst the friends, family members, Brandeis media, and coaching staff still lingering around afterwards. The NCAA Division III championship is being held in Springfield next year. Destination Springfield will be that much harder without the leadership and relentless efforts from former captain Brady. The Judges may have recently lost out on a NCAA tournament bid, but their biggest loss is that of Catherine Brady.
