With just over three-and-a-half minutes gone by in the second half of the women's basketball team's game against University Athletic Association opponent Emory University, the Judges had trimmed what was a 13-point deficit with 1 minute, 48 seconds left in the first half down to four points. But that was before Emory went on a 12-0 run, scoring four three-pointers in five possessions.The run extended the Eagles' lead to 45-29 with 13:56 left in the game, and Emory would eventually lead by as much as 17 points in an eventual 69-56 win. The loss drops the Judges to 12-3, following a win on the road against Case Western Reserve University last Friday. All three losses this season have come against teams in the UAA.

"We're playing against teams at a high level," guard Carmela Breslin '10 said. "It's intense, and all the schools recruit well [in the UAA]. We're all playing hard day in and day out, and nobody likes to lose."

Coach Carol Simon could not be reached for comment by press time, and guard Jessica Chapin '10, the Judges' leading scorer, who missed nine of her 11 field goal attempts against Emory, declined to comment on the game.

The Judges struggled with their offense all game, shooting just under 30 percent from the field. Meanwhile, the Eagles shot 46 percent from the field, including 4-8 from three-point range in the second half. This performance came after Emory shot just 1-for-21 from three-point range in its 66-59 loss last Friday to New York University.

"They were just hitting their shots," Breslin said. "It's not like we weren't getting open shots. I feel like we missed a lot of layups, and they were hitting them and we weren't. We'll definitely work on that this week in practice."

Emory scored the first points of the game and never played from behind. The Judges tied the score after the Eagles' first basket, but Emory went on a 7-0 run to take a 10-3 lead. Emory would lead by as much as 13 in the first half, but the Judges went on a 7-0 run from the last two minutes of the first half to the first three-and-a-half minutes of the second half to cut the deficit to 33-29 before the Eagles went on their 12-0 run.

After the run, Emory pulled ahead by 17 with 11:58 to go and again with 10:34 to go, but the Judges battled back, going on a 7-1 run of their own to pull within 55-49 with 4:02 left. From there the Eagles scored another six straight points, four on free throws from Emory junior guard LeShonda Lillard, to go up by 12 before ultimately winning by 13.

Breslin said the game against Emory reminded her of the team's 12-point loss to New York University Jan. 17, when the Judges also shot under 30 percent from the field.

"It goes back to our NYU game," she said. "We just didn't respond well to [Emory's] defensive pressure and had trouble running our sets. When we can, we're able to score. If you look at the shooting percentages from both games, they're both low."

Brandeis only had two players in double-digit scoring figures in the game. Chapin had ten points despite only shooting 2-11 for the game, while forward Kasey Gieschen '10 also had 10 points, scoring eight of them in the first half.

Lillard, who came in averaging just 10.1 points per game, paced Emory with a career-high 26 points. She scored 14 points at the free-throw line, where she shot 93 percent for the game despite averaging a 73-percent success rate coming into the contest.

On Friday night the Judges got their second UAA win of the season with a 79-66 win over Case Western Reserve University. Chapin led the team with 21 points and also had 10 rebounds for her first career double-double. Four other Judges also reached double figures in the win.

Brandeis will return home for a pair of UAA games against Washington University in St. Louis Friday at 6 p.m. and against the University of Chicago Sunday at 2 p.m.



-Ian Cutler contributed reporting