The Brandeis University Men's Basketball team recently salvaged a tough four-game home-stand with a win on Feb. 17 against the Emerson College Lions. Brandeis won the contest in decisive fashion, despite coming off three straight losses against highly ranked Amherst and Rochester as well as a close match up with Carnegie Mellon University. The Judges had momentum heading into this home-stand after three exciting wins over UAA rivals Emory (twice) and Case Western Reserve University. Unfortunately for the Judges, they ran into a wall of stiff competition in 4th ranked Amherst and third-ranked Rochester. Coming into their contests with Brandeis, these teams had a combined three losses, all to other top ranked teams. "This season has shown that at stages, we can play with anyone," Ben Bosanac '04 said. "But we have to play a 40 minute game and if we don't, its a simple fact you just can't beat teams like Amherst and Rochester."Hoping to build on their recent wins, the Judges came out of the gate strong against the Amherst Lord Jeffs (22-2), scoring the first five points. The first half was a game of runs as Amherst responded with a 13-2 streak of their own to take a 13-7 lead. Brandeis then came roaring back with a 15-7 run to take a 22-20 lead with 7:27 left in the half. It was downhill from there for the Judges though as Amherst cleaned up its play and showed the Brandeis crowd why they are a top-five team. After a three-pointer by Junior Russell Lee, Amherst took the lead 23-22 and never trailed again. Brandeis kept it close for the rest of the first half but missed a couple of key opportunities on Amherst turnovers and ended the half trailing by seven, 37-30.The second half was a disaster for the Judges as Amherst allowed only three field goals over the first six minutes and its lead balloned to 55-36. After a Bryan Lambert '04 three-pointer Amherst scored another 10 straight points to put their lead well over 20 and cruised to a final score of 90-61. Lambert had another good game for the Judges scoring 20 points and snatching 13 rebounds. Ben Bosanac was the only other Brandeis player in double-digits with 10. Andrew Schiel had 17 for the Jeffs and John Bedford added 14. It didn't get any easier for the Judges when the University of Rochester Yellowjackets (21-1, 8-1 UAA) and their third overall national ranking came to Auerbach arena three days later. The Jackets trailed only once during the entire contest, after the first bucket of the game. Rochester then responded, going up 18-7 before hitting their last 11 shots of the half to go into the locker room up 48-30. The second half didn't get any better for the Judges as Seth Hauben scored six of the first eight points of the half for Rochester, increasing the lead to 54-32. Still, Brandeis managed to put up a fight, holding the Jackets scoreless over a five minute span in which they hit on seven straight possessions to climb within 11 points with 12:14 left. Unfortunately, it never got any closer than that as UR came back with an 8-2 run, putting them back up by 17. The Judges could not close the lead to any closer than 14 the rest of the way.Omri Ayalon '04 led the Judges with 18 points on four of five from the 3-point line. Bryan Lambert added 17 points and nine rebounds, one short of his sixth straight double-double. Bosanac continued his productive play, tossing in 13 points. Seth Hauben scored 27 for the Jackets, including the 1,000th of his career. Gabe Perez led all players with 11 assists for Rochester. Coming off two one-sided losses, Brandeis looked to rebound against Carnegie Mellon University (12-10, 4-7 UAA). Despite taking an early 8-4 lead, Brandeis played a sluggish first half falling victim to a massive 22 point run by CMU with the Judges going eight minutes without a bucket. The Tartans forced seven turnovers in that span and connected on nine-of-10 of their own shots to take the 26-8 lead. Brandeis improved their play and was able to cut the lead to nine with 16 seconds left before CMU guard Michael Divens hit at the buzzer to increase the lead to 44-33. The Judges came out of the gates strong in the second half going on an 18-5 run, led by Bosanac who hit two three-pointers and two free-throws over that span. A Lambert layup gave Brandeis a 51-49 lead with 14:03 remaining. But Carnegie Mellon resisted the run, pushing their two point deficit to a 10 point lead with 6:31 on the clock. Still, it was a three point game with 36 seconds remaining before a steal by Eliot Goren, who had six in the game, clinched it for the Tartans. The final score was 80-74, another tough loss for the Judges. Brandeis was able to rebound from these three losses to salvage their home-stand with a 74-57 drubbing of the visiting Emerson College Lions (12-11). Brandeis never trailed in this game committing only five turnovers and shooting 43.3% from the floor. The Judges were able convert 14 forced turnovers into convert 22 points en route to the win. Leading 7-6 four minutes in, the Judges went on a streak of 14 unanswered points to push the lead to 21-6 and never looked back. Emerson broke the streak on a put back by Graham Stephen before Brandeis scored another nine unanswered. Brandeis led 32-16 heading into the half. The second half was more of the same as the Judges pushed their lead to 22. Some pressure defense by Emerson helped cut the lead to 13 but the Lions could get no closer. Lambert led Brandeis once again with 23 points and 11 boards while Stu Pradia '05 also scored in double digits with 12. Pradia also tallied 6 assists and 2 steals. Robert Hennigen scored 22 for Emerson.In other Action, the Judges lost both their games this weekend to UAA opponents Washington University and Chicago. Neither game was close despite huge efforts in both games from Lambert who went for 36 points and 11 rebounds against Wash U and a career-high 36, including his 1,000th career point, and 13 rebounds against Chicago. "Bryan Lambert has been playing like he is capable of playing and has been our go-to guy which makes my job easier," Pradia said. "The rest of us are gonna bring it in this last game so that Lambo doesn't have to carry all the scoring load, he's still our number 1 option, but guys are gonna give him some help." The Judges host NYU on Mar. 28 at 4 p.m in the final game of the season.