Strong individual performances and timely scoring runs could not overcome the poor foul shooting and sluggish start that stifled the men's basketball team's bid for an upset in its 79-75 loss to New York University on Saturday. The loss brings the team's losing streak to three games after dropping the first two University Athletic Association games to Carnegie Melon University and the University of Rochester. The Judges are now 7-6 overall and 0-3 in conference play.NYU jumped out to a 14-point lead after only seven minutes in the first half by exploiting the Judges' zone defense behind junior center Jason Boone who posted 16 points and 13 rebounds.

"The first seven or eight minutes, we dug ourselves a hole," coach Brian Meehan said. "We called a timeout and went to a man-to-man defense and did a much better job than in the zone. We settled down and started to hit some shots."

Coming out of the timeout, the Judges kicked off a 23-9 run that propelled them to a halftime deficit of only two points.

After the intermission, the Violets quickly added six points onto their lead, but the stubborn Judges found a surge of offensive power. Two three-pointers by Joe Coppens '08 and another by Huston Conti '09 gave the Judges their first lead of the game, 55-54, with just under 10 minutes remaining in the game.

"We hit a few key shots and they started guarding us outside, so we went to the rim," Meehan said. "We need to be able to balance shots from outside and take it to the rim."

Brandeis managed to keep the lead until NYU junior forward Chael Clark scored two of his team-high 17 points to start a 13-5 Violet run that resulted in a 75-66 lead with only one minute to go in the game. But the Judges hung tough, coming to within three points on a last-minute three-pointer by Steve DeLuca '08, but an NYU foul shot with three seconds remaining secured the win for the Violets.

"You take away that poor start, and we played really well the rest of the way through," Meehan said. "We have to start early."

Coppens, a three-point specialist, recorded four steals to complement a career-high 22 points, while DeLuca scored a game-high 23 points and snatched 10 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season. But the tandem's scoring power did not match up to the output of all five NYU starters, each of whom scored in double figures.

Meehan experimented with lineups, substituting players that had not received much playing time in recent games. David Mael '09 provided a presence down low for the Judges after forward Stephen Hill '08 got into foul trouble.

One main factor in the Judges woes was a five for nine from the foul line. Dismal foul shooting has been a major downfall for the team in their three-game losing streak. In their one-point loss to the University of Rochester last Sunday, Brandeis made only 10 of 19 shots from the line, and against Carnegie Mellon they made only 14 of 23.

"We have a very small margin of error," Meehan said. "We have to work on the things we can control, and we can control poor foul shooting."

On Jan. 8, Rochester sophomore center Jon Onyiriuka scored half of his team's points in a 24-point and 10-rebound performance to carry his team to a 48-47 win at Red Auerbach Arena. Onyiriuka hit what proved to be the game-winning foul shot with 27 seconds left when guard Florian Rexhepi's '08 acrobatic shot with three seconds to go did not sink.

In the UAA opener against Carnegie Mellon on Jan. 6, Conti registered a career-high 14 points off the bench and was one of four players in double figures for the Judges in a 103-85 loss. Ido Givon '07 added an offensive spark with 11 points, and Kwame Graves-Fulgham '08 contributed 10 points and six assists, but it wasn't enough to overpower the Tartans' 65 percent shooting from the floor.

Meehan summed up the last three games as both inspiring and frustrating.

"It's great that we're being competitive, but at some point we have to start winning these games," Meehan said. "In two years we've closed the gap, but a loss is a loss. There are no moral victories anymore."

Next up for the Judges is a trip to the Windy City to take on the University of Chicago in a bid to capture their first conference win.