The women's basketball team's 14-game winning streak came to an end that seemed all too familiar for the Judges. As time expired on the Judges' remarkable season-opening run, the team watched as its NCAA tournament hopes hit a bump in the road. New York University rebounded Caitlin Malcolm's '07 missed free-throw attempt, and junior guard Adrienne Rochetti raced up court for a last-second lay up, handing the visiting Judges their first defeat of the season, 70-68. The Judges dropped to 10-1 on the season and 2-1 in the UAA. The Violets are fast becoming public enemy No. 1 for the Judges. The contest marked the first loss for Brandeis since Feb. 26, 2005, when the Judges faced NYU in the last game of last year's regular season, needing a win to secure the elusive NCAA tournament berth. But the Violets knocked around the Judges in a brutal 60-47 loss before Brandeis went on to win its second straight ECAC championship. This is the third season in a row players and coaches have highlighted making the NCAA tournament as a goal, but the team could only win the ECAC New England tournament the last two seasons.

The Judges, which in December attained a record-setting No. 2 national ranking, will almost certaintly drop in the next D3hoops.com rankings after losing to the No. 20-ranked team in the country. Brandeis had been strong in its University Athletic Association competition thus far, with victories over Carnegie Mellon University (81-66) and the University of Rochester (60-56) earlier in the month. The team has also continued to trounce its regional competition since returning from winter vacation, beating the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 67-48 and Endicott College 60-41.

The Judges opened strong versus NYU, scoring seven unanswered points in the first two minutes. But it did not take the Violets long to answer as a Brandeis turnover followed by a Judges' foul allowed NYU to even the score at 22 with six minutes remaining in the first half. The two teams continued to battle, but the Violets took the lead off another Judges' turnover with 2:02 left to play, heading into halftime with a 32-31 lead.

In the second half, the Violets' offense came alive. NYU led by as many as seven points with five minutes left to play in the game. The Judges fought back and tied the score at 68 after Malcolm sank the first of two free throws with 10 seconds left in the contest. Faced with a one-and-one situation and the game on the line, Malcolm missed the second attempt as NYU junior guard Stephanie Ryba grabbed the rebound and found Rochetti who took the ball up the floor for the game winner with five seconds left on the clock.

"I was thinking, 'I better step up and make this shot,'" Malcolm said. "[After I missed] I just had to get back on defense and unfortunately, it just didn't work out."

Jaime Capra '08 led the Judges with 20 points, while Malcolm added 17. Malcolm also paced the Judges on the boards with 11 while captain Christine Clancy '06 pulled down eight. The Judges out-rebounded the Violets 44-40 but committed 27 turnovers to NYU's 11.

"It was a war out there," Brandeis coach Carol Simon said of the defeat. "There were two very physical teams just going at it and really putting everything out on the line. It's a shame we didn't come out on top, but we have nothing to hang our heads for."

Captain Amanda DeMartino '06 added: "When you lose a game by two points, you look at a million different things and say, "If we just did that differently, we would have won.' But we played really hard and unfortunately things just didn't go our way."

Although their first loss was disheartening for the team, the Judges have proven before that they are able to compete with tougher conference foes.

Against Rochester, the team rallied from a 9-point deficit to beat the Yellow Jackets 60-56 at home on Jan. 8. Malcolm led the Judges in scoring with a season and game-high 22 points, including eight of 12 from the floor, while Clancy finished with eight. Malcolm also paced the Judges on the boards, grabbing five, and DeMartino grabbed four.

Before taking on the Yellow Jackets, the Judges ran past Carnegie, 81-66, in the UAA opener at home. The win marked three milestones for the team as the Judges' 11th straight win, dating back to last season, marked the third-longest winning streak in school history. The victory was also Simon's 250th career win and DeMartino's seven assists propelled her to the school's all-time lead in assists.

"It's flattering and I'm very pumped that I did it," DeMartino said of her record-setting performance. "But at the same time I'm happy it's over with, because now people will stop asking me about it."

Despite Simon's achievement, the coach believes the milestone is not as important as it sounds.

"I don't look at it as a huge milestone," Simon said. "To me it just means you've been in the business for a long time. Also, it's not about me, it's about all those players that have gotten the wins. I just stand on the sidelines."

Despite suffering their first loss, the players say that they are poised and ready for the tough competition that lies ahead. Simon stressed improvement as the key to success this season.

"We're taking it one day at a time, we're not looking ahead," Simon said. "We've got to take care of business each day, come out to practice and just get better."

The Judges look to go undefeated in the region with their last regional contest against Tufts University today at 7 p.m at home.