The bugs may be gone until summer, but the Brandeis men's basketball team still managed to get stung. The Judges fell 77-64 to the University of Rochester YellowJackets last Sunday afternoon at the Red Auerbach Arena after defeating Emory University last Friday night. Brandeis is now 13-4 overall this season and 3-4 in University Athletic Association play.

Last Sunday, the Judges started the game on top but could not deliver a victory. Rochester, now the UAA leader with a 6-1 record, evaporated the Judges' 10-4 lead with a 7-0 run after 10 minutes.

"We played poorly on Sunday," coach Brian Meehan said. "Sundays have been a real problem for us. We played pretty well for the first 6 minutes of the game. [Center Youri] Dascy '14 came out strong, but once he went out of the game it just kind of unraveled offensively. Then we started turning the ball over."

Rochester junior Nate Novosel, who entered the match shooting 65 percent from the field to lead the YellowJackets, finished with a game-high 16 points. But Brandeis was able to keep Novosel quiet for the opening 10 minutes of the match, and Dascy scored 7 points in the first 2 1/2 minutes, 5 of which came from the free-throw line. However, Rochester shored up its defense for the remainder of the period and only allowed two more foul shots following Dascy's run.

Rochester then picked up the offensive pace. The YellowJackets scored 14 points in a 4-minute span, half of which came off the hands of junior Chris Dende.

Brandeis was able to come up with a response with 7:19 remaining in the first period. With the score 28-19, the Judges went on a 6-2 streak led by forward Alex Stoyle '14 and guard Anthony Trapasso '13, but the team was unable to keep its feet on the gas pedal. Rochester followed up with a 9-0 run off of four Brandeis turnovers, giving the YellowJackets a half-time advantage of 39-25.

Brandeis was unable to get shots off or keep the ball effectively in the first period, as Rochester capitalized on the Judges' 15 turnovers and 33-percent scoring. The Judges came out with more energy in the second half and proved it on the scoreboard too. But even though Brandeis led second-period scoring 39-38, the effort was still not enough to overcome a 14-point first-half deficit.

Rochester also failed to miss a beat to start of the second period, scoring six of its first nine shots to extend its lead to 21 points. Guard Derek Retos '14 was Brandeis' offensive spearhead through the entire game, leading the Judges with 15 points, including four 3-point shots. Dascy had a strong performance at center, finishing the afternoon with 14 points and a game-high six rebounds. Guard Tyrone Hughes '12 led the Judges with three assists.

But going point-for-point with Rochester in the second period was not enough. Rochester outscored Brandeis by 1 point in the second half, but had a high output from most of their players. Rochester had five different players scoring in double figures, four of whom tallied at least 14 points on the game.

Novosel was the clear offensive spearhead of the group, but Dende, sophomore John DiBartolomeo and freshman Nate Vernon all scored a combined 43 points. Senior Mike Labanowski had 10 points and three steals, tying himself with DiBartolomeo for game-high honors. In addition, Rochester was able to translate 19 Brandeis turnovers into 25 points, while Brandeis scored just 9 points off of 11 Rochester errors.

"It was just guys making bad decisions," Meehan said. "Sometimes it's guys making mistakes running plays. A lot of our turnovers are when we just lose patience running the offense. When we start dribbling too much we're not a very good offensive team."

The Judges also played Emory University at home last Friday. Brandeis defeated the Emory Eagles 86-82 in overtime. Hughes had a career game, scoring 22 points and adding three rebounds and four assists. Dascy led the team with 10 rebounds, while Yemga tied for the game high with six assists. Brandeis went into the half wtih a 43-24 lead, but Emory turned the match around and outscored Brandeis 46-27 in the second half. Brandeis was able to pull together and outscore Emory 17-12 in overtime for the victory.

"We got to the point late in the game where we stopped running our offense," Meehan said. "We were using time up off the clock, but we weren't getting good shots, so going into overtime we just said, 'let's stop being so tight out here and just play and if we get an open shot, just take it.' We did a much better job for those 5 minutes of [overtime] running our offense."

The Judges will face both the Eagles and the YellowJackets again this weekend. They will travel to Emory on Friday and Rochester on Sunday.

-Jeffrey Boxer contributed reporting.