The women’s basketball team won the 2014 Brandeis Coaches vs. Cancer Tip-Off Tournament this weekend, coming away with two blowout victories to win the four-team tournament and open their season with a 2-0 record. 

The Judges began the tournament with a win over Mount Ida College 85-36 on Saturday. The squad followed that up with a 77-39 win over Salve Regina University to win the tournament and earn a perfect start to the season.

“I thought the team played excellent this weekend; we were tough,” said guard Hannah Cain ’15.  

“Our energy, effort and chemistry was incredible and everyone contributed to both wins.”  

The team’s offense took some time to get on track against Salve Regina, as the Judges missed their first six shots before center Maria Jackson ’17—named tournament MVP—scored the team’s first points four minutes into the first half on a layup. It was the Judges’ defense that kept them in the game in the early going, holding the Seahawks to just four points in the first eight minutes of the half.

With their defense leading the way, the Judges’ offense started converting on the other end of the floor midway through the first half. The squad went on  a 24-4 stretch spanning just under five minutes that gave the team a 27-8 lead. The run was jumpstarted by eight Salve Regina turnovers, giving the Judges an insurmountable lead.

The Judges closed out the half with another strong run, outscoring Salve Regina 16-8 in the final five and a half minutes of the first half to go up 43-16. Going into halftime, the Judges were led by guard Frankie Pinto ’17 who had 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting with two threes. 

Salve Regina junior guard Meaghan Harden led the Seahawks with six points at the half on 33 percent shooting from the field. Harden came down to earth a bit against the Judges after putting up a school-record 45 points and shooting an astronomically high 16-of-26 from the field against Regis in the first game of the tournament.

Salve Regina was unable to cut into the lead in the second half, as Brandeis continued to dominate virtually every aspect of the game. The Judges managed 25 points off of just as many Seahawk turnovers while holding Salve Regina to an anemic 29 percent shooting from the floor. Brandeis won the game with a final score of 77-39, and Pinto finished the game with 23 points to lead the women.

Hannah Cain added a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds in 22 minutes in her second game back from injury while grabbing five of the squad’s 11 steals on the game.

“After being out all last season, it felt really refreshing to be able compete with my team and play for my coaches again,” she said. “It is weird because now that I am back and healthy to play, I do not even feel like I ever got hurt, and I do not feel any different than I did before I got injured.”

On Saturday, the Judges had similar success against Mount Ida in their season opener. The game was tied at 6-6 with 17:03 left in the first half when Brandeis started to pull away thanks to consistent inside scoring. Over the next 10 minutes of game time, the Judges put together a 28-6 run to go up 34-12 and put the game out of reach. 

Brandeis was led by Jackson, who had 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting, as well as a career high from guard Heather Cain ’16, who scored 14 points and tallied five steals. The lead never dwindled for the Judges, who won the game by a large margin, 85-36, for their first win of the season.

“Since I have been playing at Brandeis, this team is not quite like any other team I have been on,” Hannah Cain said. 

“Each year was good in a different way, but this year we’re fast and athletic, so we’re looking to capitalize on those strengths and play an up tempo game,” she remarked.  

“We want to learn and we want to work; we’re not here to mess around, and we just want to be our best.

“Every day we come to practice to get better,” Cain continued. “We understand that getting better takes discipline and toughness.  So in order to improve and to get better each day, we really lock-down and focus on being disciplined and physically and mentally tough.”

The team will look to continue its winning streak to start the season with two games this week. The Judges play at Roger Williams University tomorrow, beginning at 6 p.m., and at Tufts University on Saturday at 2 p.m.