The men’s basketball game on Friday night, Jan. 23 in Gosman came down to the last few seconds in a UAA conference game against 21st-ranked University of Chicago. The Judges pulled out the win, 59-58, to improve their season record to 7-8 overall.
Brandeis was trailing by 10 with 7:08 left to go in the game, before slowly cutting the deficit. However, the Judges still trailed by 5 with 2:31 to go. But Brandeis started a run for the win with a tip-in by Colby Smith ’16, after teammate Jordan Cooper ’18 stole the ball but missed a contested lay-up. Chicago looked to secure a lead, but their aggressive offense resulted in an offensive foul with 1:31 remaining in the game and a turnover in Brandeis’ favor. Brandeis missed a 3-pointer and got called for a foul on the rebound, but Brandeis’ tough defense fought back, forcing Chicago to commit another offensive foul on an inbounds play with 25.1 seconds to go, putting the ball back in the hands of the Judges.
With the shot clock off and Brandeis down by three, 58-55, Cooper dropped a quick bucket to bring the Judges within one with 17.5 seconds left. Three seconds later, Brandeis sent a Chicago player to the line for a one-and-one. The shot missed and Smith grabbed the rebound and drove down the middle of the court to draw a foul with 6.6 seconds left in the game.
Smith proceeded to drop both shots to put his team ahead, 59-58. “I was a little nervous shooting the free throws, but my thoughts going into the free throws were that everyone would still support me even if I missed and that thinking about it would just make me nervous, so I just tried to shoot them just like I would any other shot,” stated Smith on his crucial points.
After Smith’s shots, Brandeis called a timeout, which was followed by a Chicago timeout when they couldn’t inbound the ball. Chicago got the ball into their leading scorer who dribbled down the left sideline before making a quick move to the basket. Smith came to save the day once again, blocking Chicago’s last chance at victory. The blocked ball landed in the hands of a Judge, ensuring the win for Brandeis.
“I just didn’t want us to lose like we did at the beginning of the season when we lost a lot of close games on a game winning layup, so I went for the block. Once I had blocked the shot, I just felt so great that our team had won the game, and I felt a rush of energy in that moment from blocking the shot and from the crowd cheering,” Smith said.
Smith led the Judges with 15 points, seven rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots. Cooper finished with 12 points, while Robinson Vilmont ’17 finished with 10 points and John Powell ’17 contributed 10 points and six rebounds.
The Judges face Emory this Friday, Jan. 29 at home at 8 p.m.
