Coming off a backbreaking loss to 25th ranked Washington University and another tough game at the University of Chicago, the Brandeis Men's Basketball team looked to end their season on a positive note, hosting NYU in their season finale. Auerbach Arena was primed for a good showdown as the classic rivals set to square off on Saturday.
Despite a huge effort from Bryan Lambert '04, in what was his last game for Brandeis, the Judges came up a little short falling 81-77. The Judges finished their season with a mark of 7-17, a one game improvement from last year's squad led by current Philadelphia 76ers coach Chris Ford.
"Our final record only showed a one game improvement, but as a program we made a larger improvement as far as knowing what we have to do to win games and be a successful team next year," forward Glenn Wright '05 said. "We can win the UAA, and everybody is just going to be working hard from March until September to improve their game."
The game was a spectacular showdown to end the season on despite the unfortunate outcome for the Judges. The first half was especially close as the teams traded buckets and swapped leads with no team leading by more than two points at any time! A layup at the halftime buzzer by Jason Boone gave NYU a two point lead heading into the locker room at 31-29.
The second half was more of the same as the game remained close; the largest lead, eight, by NYU on another Boone layup. With 8:37 left, Tim Deihl answered the Boone layup to bring the Judges within six at 59-53. The teams battled for the next series of minutes as Brandeis attempted to close the lead further and NYU resisted.
Brandeis finally broke through with 4:50 remaining on an Omri Ayalon '05 jumper which tied it at 67 all. The game remained close all the way down to the final seconds. With one minute remaining, Brandeis trailed by two with the ball, but a missed jumper by Ayalon and a foul by Scott Green '05 sent NYU to the line with only eight seconds remaining and a two point advantage. Michael Dicorso sunk both for NYU and a Lambert turnover in the waining seconds sealed the deal for NYU. This loss was just one in a series of heartbreakers to UAA rivals this year for the Judges who proved they can play with just about any team in the country this season.
Lambert culminated his impressive season with a career-high 38 points in this game including a record-tying eight three-pointers. Lambert also grabbed 13 rebounds for his 11th double-double in twelve games and his thirteenth on the season. Lambert also scored his 1,000th career point this season. Lambert finished this season with three consecutive 30 point games to raise his season average to a career-best 20.75points per game.
The rest of the starters contributed to this game as well with senior Deihl scoring 12 points and Ben Bosanac '04 scoring 11 in his final College contest. Junior Omri Ayalon notched 12 points as well for the Judges but the bench put up a goose egg hurting Brandeis' chances at victory.
For NYU, five players scored in double-figures including Michael Dicorso who led the way with 17. Jason Boone added 16 and Jared Kildare had 15. NYU finished its season with a mark of 19-6 (8-6 UAA).