UNION, N.J.-For a time, it looked like history would repeat itself in the women's basketball team's second-round NCAA Tournament game against No. 11 Kean University last Saturday. After staging a dramatic 15-point comeback late in the second half of last Friday's 74-71 first-round win over No. 17 University of Southern Maine, the Judges sliced a 17-point first-half deficit to four against Kean with 38 seconds left in the first half.But that promise faded quickly as Kean throttled the Judges in the second half to win 95-61, sending them home in the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive season. Brandeis finished the season 19-8.

"They're just an extremely athletic team that wants to . get a lot of shots off, [they're] very aggressive defensively, and they really want an [up]-tempo game," coach Carol Simon said to reporters last Saturday.

Kean took an 11-0 lead less than three minutes into the game on senior center Chari Cooper's free throw and extended the lead to 26-9 with 10 minutes, 41 seconds left in the first half after junior guard Melissa Beyruti hit an outside shot from the top of the key. But after hitting just one of their first 15 shots, the Judges' rallied with a 19-10 run that cut Kean's lead to 36-30 at halftime.

"You want to shorten the game up against [Kean]," Simon told reporters last Saturday. "You don't want an up-and-down game and let them get 70 shots a game, especially the way they shoot. So what we need to do is make them play defense and really run the offense."

The Judges picked up their offense in the second half, shooting 11 for 34 after going just seven for 34 in the first half, but their defense fell apart, as Kean scored 59 points after the break to put the game out of reach. Beyruti, who led all players with 31 points, scored 17 of those over the first 11:03 of the second half to give Kean a 73-45 lead.

"[Brandeis is] a very good team," Cougars coach Michelle Sharp told reporters. "They're very competitive . They worked hard 'till the end, [and] they're well-coached."

The Judges' may have used up all their energy during their comeback against Southern Maine the previous night. After the teams traded the lead in the first half, the Judges fell behind by 15 points with 9:03 left before staging the best comeback of all first-round teams in the NCAA Tournament this season, outscoring the Huskies 21-7 for the rest of the game.

"With about nine minutes to go, somebody hit a couple big shots, and all of a sudden things started going our way," Capra told reporters last Friday. "We got a few big steals; we just started pushing the ball, we'd get a steal, and just go back down the other end, hit a three or get an easy layup. It's hard to stop the momentum once it's going the other way, and I think that's definitely what happened tonight."

With the Huskies clinging to a 68-66 lead at the two-minute mark, Capra hit a deep three-pointer, giving the Judges a one-point lead, their first advantage of the second half, with 1:56 remaining.

Brandeis extended the lead to 71-67 with 45 seconds left on back-to-back free throws by reserve forward Amber Strodthoff '11, and after Southern Maine senior forward Angela Santa Fe hit a layup with 35 seconds left to slice the lead in half, Strodthoff hit two more free throws with 16 seconds remaining to give Brandeis a 74-71 lead.

"I was like, 'I cannot let myself think about the score; I can't let myself think about where I'm at or what game this is,'" Strodthoff told reporters last Friday. "[My teammates] showed me they had confidence in me, and that really gave me confidence in myself, and I just went up to that line and did the best I could."

Southern Maine had one more chance with only 4.6 seconds left, but sophomore guard Nicole Paradis couldn't hold onto the ball in the backcourt, and reserve point guard Lauren Rashford '10 clutched it as time expired.

After leading their team to an 18-7 regular season and 9-5 UAA record, last weekend's games marked the end of the Brandeis careers of Capra, co-captain and point guard Kiersten Holgash '08 and reserve guard Courtney Tremblay '08. The trio of seniors participated in the first three NCAA Tournament appearances in the team's history, and Capra finished second-place on Brandeis' all-time scoring list with 1,393 points, just 19 short of Caitlin Malcolm '07.

"Coming to Brandeis, playing for a team that's been as competitive as we are and playing for a great coach and a great group of girls, I'll really miss the camaraderie, I'll really miss just playing basketball," Holgash told reporters.

The Judges will return Orlando, guard Jessica Chapin '10 and forward Cassidy Dadaos '09, as well as their top three most commonly used reserves next season.