The women’s basketball team captured the Brandeis Tip-Off Tournament, presented by the Park Lodge Hotel Group, to help head coach Carol Simon earn her 400th career victory. To win the title, the Judges defeated Eastern Nazarene College 70-54 on Saturday afternoon and was victorious by a score 81-38 over Mount Holyoke College. The title was the team’s third in four years.

Judges 70, Eastern Nazarene 54

In Saturday’s contests, the squad was able to jump out to a quick lead and never look back. The Judges ended the first quarter with a dominating 17-point lead that included a crucial three-pointer from guard Niki Laskaris ’16. 

The Judges were up 21 points going into halftime and coasted for the rest of the contest. Laskaris was the high-scorer on the squad, netting 17 points for the contest. Forward Sydney Sodine ’17 scored 16 points, while guard Paris Hodges ’17 contributed 12. 

Forward Maria Jackson ’17 was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player after recording a dominant all-around game that included eight rebounds, six assists, four steals, three blocks and six points. Joining Jackson on the All-Tournament team were Laskaris, Hodges and Sodine. 

The win marked the 400th victory of Coach Carol Simon’s 29-year career. Simon can now add another notch on her remarkable resume to go along with three Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference championships and four consecutive National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III Tournament appearances from 2005 to 2009. 

The most impressive of these appearances came in the 2008 to 2009 season, in which the squad went all the way to the NCAA Elite Eight. Simon is 31st among career victories for active Division III head coaches. 

Judges 81, Mount Holyoke 38

The Judges dominated the entire contest against Mount Holyoke. The squad scored 13 consecutive points in the first quarter to take a lead that it would never relinquish. In the second quarter, things got even tougher for Mount Holyoke, which got outscored by a margin of 31-7.  The team was up at halftime by a score of 50-18. 

The team was once again led by Jackson, who scored 12 points, while guard Frankie Pinto ’17 contributed 11 points. Captain and guard Heather Cain ’16 also chipped in 11 points and two big steals. Another standout performer for the day was transfer guard Neffie Lockley ’18, who added 10 points, seven of which came in the second quarter. 

Guard Kyla Gabriel ’17 had a big game on the glass, pulling down both a game-high and career-high nine rebounds in the contest. Gabriel also added four assists, two steals and six points on the day. Lockley and Hodges both contributed seven boards in a contest in which the Judges out-rebounded the Lyons 58-39. The squad was also able to lead the Lyons into turning over the ball 31 times while only committing 7 turnovers of their own. The team converted those Mount Holyoke turnovers into 30 total points. 

The Judges will next play tonight on the road at Roger Williams University at 7:00 p.m.