Men's Bball winless on road trip.The Brandeis men's basketball squad dropped four consecutive games on a road swing that culminated with a three-point loss to Carnegie Mellon. The Judges also fell at the hands of Babson College, MIT and the University of Rochester. While their overall record dropped to 1-7, the Judges are now 0-2 in University Athletic Association conference play. Down by eight at halftime against the host CMU Tartans, the Judges opened the second half on a 13-4, surging ahead by a single point. After Jonathan Marks knocked home a three to knot the score at 48, Carnegie Mellon put the game away with a crucial 6-3 run.



Globe columnist dead at 67.

Legendary sportswriter Will McDonough passed away on Thursday. McDonough, whose son Sean is the play-by-play man for the Boston Red Sox (and a college football commentator for CBS Sports), spent over four decades with The Boston Globe. A Beantown native and graduate of Northeastern University, McDonough made his mark covering the early years of the National Football League. He covered all 36 Super Bowls during his lifetime and crossed over into television, where he became an Emmy Award-winning correspondent for CBS and NBC. "He was an institution," said New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, "not only in Boston, but in the world of sports journalism."



Yao leads Shaq in All-Star Balloting.

As if his agonizing recovery from off-season toe surgery and ninth place in the Western Conference weren't bad enough, Los Angeles Lakers center Shquille O'Neal is facing another tough battle. As of Jan. 2, he trails Houston Rockets rookie phenom Yao Ming by over 100,000 votes in the NBA's latest All-Star ballot tally. Yao, who is currently listed as day-to-day with a strained knee, is averaging 13 points per game through the season's first 36 games, 25 of which he has started. In 24 games played, Shaq has averaged over 26 points and 10 rebounds per contest.







-- Rob Siegel