The Brandeis Women’s Basketball team kicked off the new year with four games, three of which were University Athletic Association (UAA) competition. On Jan. 2, the Judges faced off against Regis College in Weston, MA. The Judges took an early lead in the first quarter with a 13-11 score and stayed ahead the entire game against their local rivals to secure the win with a final score of 60-50. This has been the Judges most successful non-conference season since the 2014-2015 season with a record of 8-2. The Judges secured the win in the fourth quarter when they went on a 9-3 point run. Lead by rookie Jillian Petrie ’21, the run gave the Judges a 15-point lead, the largest of the game. Hannah Nicholson ’20 lead the team with 12 points and nine rebounds. Katie Goncalo ’20 ended the game with six rebounds and Joelle MarkAnthony ’19 followed close behind with five of her own and four off the glass. Noel Hodges ’18 lead the team with three assists.
After a solid victory, the Judges headed to New York City to face off against the Violets at NYU on Jan. 6 for their UAA season opener. In the first quarter the Judges gave up a ten-point lead to the Violets trailing 17-27. In the third quarter the Judges cut a 20-point lead down to only five points with the assistance of guard Camila Casanueva ’21 and Nicholson. Casanueva stopped the Violets 12 point run in its track with a rare four-point play.
The Judges were unable to stop the Violets’ strong close. Casanueva earned the top spot, scoring 17 for the first time in her career. She hit 5-of-10 field goals, 4-of-9 from the three-point line and hitting 3-of-3 on the line. Sarah Jaromin ’19 had 13 points of her own coming off the bench, just shy of her career best. Hodges led the team in assists at three and five steals.
Despite having lost, the team geared for more games six days later in St. Louis against Washington University on Jan. 12. The Judges came up with a huge win against the Bears with a score of 92-84. They fell behind by two in the first quarter, but quickly turned it around with a 13-4 run in the first 5:41 minutes of play, outscoring the Bears in the second quarter 26-11. The run started with back-to-back three pointers by Casanueva and Goncalo, securing Brandeis’ lead. Petrie started the second half by securing a 15-point lead with an easy layup. In the fourth quarter, Brandeis prevented all field goals from the Bears for an entire six minutes. With Jaromin’s three-pointer, the Judges earned the largest lead of the game 63-46. Casanueva lead the team with 17 points and Nicholson lead with 11 rebounds.
The final match of the trip was against the University of Chicago on Jan. 14. The Judges fell behind in the first quarter, ending with a score of 14-23, but came back strong in the second quarter finishing the half with 30-33. Hodges hit two free-throws, evening up the score at 52-52 with nine minutes left in the game. Unfortunately, the Maroons had a very strong defensive finish and defeated the Judges 72-63. Jaromin led the Judges with 12 points, seven of those earned in the fourth quarter. MarkAnthony earned nine points and nine rebounds, just missing a double-double. Nicolson led the Judges with a career high of 16 rebounds—the most by a Brandeis player since Nov. 17, 2015—while also adding eight points.
The Judge now advance their record to 9-4 with a 1-2 in league play. The Judges have two full weekends of UAA matches. This coming weekend at home the Judges go against Rochester on Friday Jan. 19 and Emory on Sunday the 21st. The following weekend they will face off against Case Western on Friday Jan. 26 and Carnegie Mellon on Sunday the 28th.
