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It was a rough airplane ride home for the women's basketball team after a difficult swing through the Midwest. Over the long weekend, the Judges lost to the University of Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis, an extension of their road woes. The Judges were defeated 60-28 on Sunday, and lost 73-61 on Friday, falling to a 7-9 overall record and 1-4 mark in the University Athletic Association.
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"There wasn't a large difference between the two games," said forward Erika Higginbottom '13. "The biggest difference was at Carnegie, we kept turning the ball over during a stretch of the game, and at Case, we just couldn't make shots during a certain stretch. In both games, there was just a certain stretch where we just couldn't pull it all together."
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Brandeis had its lowest scoring game in 15 years since a defensive battle in 1998 against New York University. Hannah Cain '15 led the scoring efforts for the Judges with seven points and only shot 10 percent from two-point range. This performance added to a poor 16 percent mark for the Judges in the game.
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While Brandeis kept up with Wash U in turnovers forced, 23 to 22, and second chance points, WashU had a huge edge in bench points, leading by a 29-16 margin. Despite Brandeis' lack of bench points, guard Niki Laskaris '16 notched one third of the Judges' bench points with five, while only hitting one three-point shot throughout the night.
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Though the game was low-scoring, Brandeis did hold WashU to its fourth-lowest point total of the season, keeping the team under 40 percent shooting-a feat only half of WashU's opponents were able to accomplish.
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WashU sophomore forward Melissa Gilkey was the only player on either side to score in double digits, with 16 points on the night. Junior forward Lucy Montgomery had nine points off the bench, which were all scored from three-point range. 
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Brandeis, meanwhile, stormed out to a strong start Friday night. After allowing the first four points of the night, the Judges went on a 14-4 run and were leading for a majority of the first half, up by as many as seven points. The Judges were up 32-28 with two minutes left; however, Chicago went on a five point scoring run, taking the lead with eight seconds left to play in the half.
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Higginbottom led scoring with eight points at the half, and shot four for four during the first half of the game. Brandeis forced 11 turnovers while only giving up seven and outscoring Chicago on turnovers by a 10-3 margin. 
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The second half told a very different tale. Chicago opened the half with an 18-6 run. The Judges only made three out of their first eighteen shots of the second half, allowing Chicago to run away with the game. Chicago began to tear apart Brandeis' defense, scoring multiple times in the paint as well as from three-point range. Chicago was in the lead by as much as 16 points, and finished the game ahead by 12.
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The Judges' leading scorer was Higginbottom, who put up 14 points, including two late game three-pointers. Also notable was guard Kasey Dean '14 who had 11 rebounds, just one short of a career high for the guard. No other player in the game had more than four assists aside from Dean, who was also five of 11 from the field. Chicago had three players scoring in double digits. For Chicago, freshman guard Paige Womack led all scoring 16 points, scoring three of five  from three-point range. 
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Despite the hardships, Higginbottom says the team will continue to fight until the end.
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"We approach every game with a different plan," she said. "The only thing we can control is how hard we play, so we'll just come out with everything we have (in the season's last two home games) because we have nothing to lose."
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Brandeis will be back on the road in UAA games next weekend as the team travels to Emory University Friday at 6 p.m. The Judges will then travel to the  University of Rochester this Sunday at 2 p.m.
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- Jacob Moskowitz contributed reporting