Junior Courtney Thrun ’21 received a lot of support from fans on Friday, but they weren’t just from Brandeis: during warmups before the second half, Thrun greeted her former teammates from Adelphi University, who were in town for a match-up against Bentley on Saturday.
Thrun gave them a lot to cheer about, scoring a career-high 16 points on 8-of-10 shooting, but the Judges fell to Case Western 80-68 on Friday. The Judges ended the weekend by losing to Carnegie Mellon on Sunday 73-63, and are now 12-6 overall and 2-5 in the University Athletic Association (UAA).
Down by 41-31 with 6:48 remaining in the third quarter on Friday, Thrun ignited an 11-0 run, scoring six points and notching two steals. Thrun’s go-ahead layup following one of her steals with 4:33 left in the third gave the Judges their first lead of the second half.
Following junior Kat Puda’s ’21 three-pointer to tie the game at 47-47 with 1:01 left in the period, the Spartans never trailed for the rest of the game.
Although the Judges held the Spartans to just 20 percent on three-pointers, two Spartan players combined for 55 points, 22 of which came in the fourth quarter. The Spartans were also perfect from the foul line, going 22-of-22 in the contest.
“We didn’t execute the way we wanted to,” Associate Head Coach Scott Foulis, who filled in for Head Coach Carol Simon, said in a postgame interview with The Brandeis Hoot. “It was a game where you felt like you were working uphill the entire time,” he added.
The Spartans’ defense suffocated the Judges offensively, forcing them into 19 turnovers and limiting the Judges to only three free throws, drastically lower than their average of 19 attempts per game. “We just weren’t able to establish the rhythm we wanted,” Foulis told The Hoot.
Hannah Nicholson ’20 recorded her eighth double-double of the season, scoring 11 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. Camila Casanueva ’21 also had a double-double, scoring 13 points and dishing out a career-high 10 assists. Puda and rookie sharpshooter Francesca Marchese ’23 each knocked down two three-pointers off the bench.
The Judges entered halftime on Sunday down 35-32. Carnegie Mellon opened the third quarter on a 9-2 run, extending their lead to 44-34. The Judges responded with a 6-0 run of their own but never came closer than four points.
After a three by Marchese with 5:40 remaining in the fourth quarter to cut the Tartans’ lead to 56-52, Carnegie Mellon went on a 10-4 run over the next three and a half minutes, effectively putting the game out of reach.
Despite the Judges being a strong rebounding team, as they out-rebound their opponents by an average of seven rebounds per game, the Tartans out-rebounded the Judges 46-40, including 19 on the offensive glass. The Tartans outscored the Judges in second-chance points 19-4.
Rookie Emma Reavis ’23 set career-highs in both rebounds and assists with seven and eight respectively. Reavis, who has started every game this season, leads the Judges with over 1.7 steals per game. Casanueva was the lone Brandeis player in double figures, scoring 12 points.
Marchese hit two threes again and has nailed at least two threes in 11-of-18 games this season. Junior Samira Abdelreheim ’21 had eight points to go along with two blocks off the bench.
The Judges will have a chance to get revenge on both the Spartans and the Tartans this weekend as they travel to play Case Western this Friday, and cap off the weekend at Carnegie Mellon on Sunday.
Editor’s Note: Camila Casanueva, Francesca Marchese and Courtney Thrun are staff members of The Hoot. Sports Editor Sophie Trachtenberg is also a member of the women’s basketball team.
