On an afternoon when the Brandeis men's basketball team honored its four graduating seniors-forward Terrell Hollins '10, center Rich Magee '10, and guards Kenny Small '10 and Andre Roberson '10-it was the fifth member of that recruiting class who provided the spark the Judges needed to defeat rival New York University Saturday.Guard John Weldon '10 hit the go-ahead 3-pointer for the Judges with 8 minutes, 33 seconds left in the game to give the Judges a lead they would not relinquish in a 69-62 win on Senior Day.

Coach Brian Meehan noted Weldon's role and importance to the team.

"That's [Weldon's] job [to shoot 3-pointers]," Meehan said. "When he gets in there we need him to contribute, the thing he does best is shoot the ball, and we were struggling. [Small] couldn't find the hoop and [guard] Vytas [Kriskus] '12 was struggling early on, so when Weldon hit those shots it kind of loosened us all up."

Hollins echoed his coach's comments, saying how Weldon's shooting abilities have helped the team.

"Now [Weldon is] starting to shoot the ball real well, so coach is very confident in him. . We were really in a funk in the second half ,and he lifted us and just totally gave all the momentum to us and carried us through the rest of the game," Hollins said. "He played a significant role and one we desperately needed."

Weldon, whose points only came on those two 3-pointers, will return to the team next year as a graduate student, as he took a redshirt season after missing most of his first two seasons with injuries, thus granting him a fifth year of eligibility.

The victory gives the Judges a final record of 19-6, 9-5 in the University Athletic Association, while also avenging one of their losses from earlier in the season.

Hollins finished the game one rebound short of a double-double, scoring 18 points and grabbing nine rebounds. He recorded the team's two blocks on the afternoon.

Roberson contributed 17 points of his own and shot 60 percent from the field. He led the team with three assists.

Kriskus scored 14 points and converted on all six of his free throws. He converted on two of seven 3-point shots.

Magee, Brandeis' starting center, sprained his ankle Feb. 19 at the University of Rochester and missed Saturday's game. According to Meehan, Magee will miss the entire postseason.

"Rich [Magee], we're going to miss him tremendously," Hollins said. "He's one of our captains; he's one of our leaders. He gets us going, playing hard in practice all the time. He's one of our better post defenders. It's tough now."

Magee finishes his Brandeis career having played 99 games, starting 43 of them. He averaged 2.6 rebounds and 3.1 points per game throughout his career, including a career-high 100 points this season.

Like the first game between these two clubs, NYU came out strong in the first half, leading by as many as 9 points in the period while shooting 56.5 percent from the field.

Meanwhile, the Judges were only shooting 40.7 percent, including 0-5 from 3-point range. But a layup by Roberson and a dunk by Kriskus, after a steal by forward Christian Yemga '11, pulled the Judges within five with the score 31-26 at the break.

Early in the second half the Violets led by 8 points on three separate occasions but the Judges continued to fight back. The last of these occasions, was with 13:59 left in the game, when NYU took a 43-35 lead on a 3-pointers by senior forward Keith Jensen.

After that the Judges went on a 14-0 run to turn the 8-point deficit into a 6-point lead with 7:33 left.

The last 6 points in the run came from two 3-pointers from Weldon.

Brandeis shot 52.2 percent from the field and connected on five of the 11 3-pointers it shot. They missed two of the 16 free throws they shot, giving them a percentage of 87.5 percent.

With the seniors playing their last game at Red Auerbach Arena, the team still has one goal left: winning the NCAA tournament, as Meehan noted.

"They've won a lot games, they've done a very nice job for us, but tey've still got some work left to do," Meehan said.