The women's basketball squad went on the road this past weekend, looking to continue a recent winning streak against Midwest opponents.

The Judges did so, winning both of their games this past weekend against University Athletic Association opponents, defeating Carnegie Mellon University 58-55 on Sunday and Case Western Reserve University 63-58 on Friday.

With the victories, the Judges improve to 10-8 overall and 4-3 in UAA play, climbing into a tie for fourth-place in the conference.

The Judges extended their win streak on Sunday to four victories in a row, cobbling together their longest streak since the 2009 to 2010 season and matching their win total from last year.

The game featured 20 lead changes and, additionally, the largest lead by either team was seven points. Brandeis went into halftime down 30-27, and at the outset of the second half, Carnegie Mellon increased their lead to six points following a traditional three-point play made by Carnegie Mellon sophomore forward Liza Otto.

The Judges responded on a six-point scoring run to tie the game with 16 minutes, 44 seconds remaining. After swapping leads with Carnegie Mellon for about 10 minutes, the Judges found themselves trailing 49-44 with 6:15 left.

Brandeis then went on another scoring run, scoring 10 of the next 12 points. While trailing 51-49, center Nicolina Vitale '14 scored on a one-and-one play, proceeding to make one of her two ensuing free throws to give the Judges the lead for good. Forward Maria Jackson '17 then blocked a shot and collected the rebound on CMU's next possession, leading to a jump shot from guard Janelle Rodriguez '14. After two Tartans free throws made it a one-point game, Vitale responded with a jumper on the next Brandeis possession to increase the lead back to three points.

Carnegie Mellon didn't let up, though, scoring on their next possession to get back to within one at 56-55 with 1:51 remaining. Yet the Judges came away with two big defensive stops and hit their free throws to end the game.

Jackson finished the game with a double-double, tallying a team-high 16 points to go along with 13 rebounds. Vitale added 11 points while Rodriguez finished with five points and four steals.

On Friday, the Judges again narrowly escaped with another close road victory. Case came out firing, scoring nine of the first 11 points. Brandeis responded, however, with a 9-0 run highlighted by six points from guard Kasey Dean '14.

The Spartans still managed to go into halftime with a 24-21 lead despite shooting just four-for-23 from the field in the first half.

The Judges found themselves trailing 51-50 with 3:42 remaining in the second half, but executed consecutive defensive stops to hold Case scoreless for the next 2:59.

Guard Paris Hodges '17 scored three of her career-high 14 points during the run and collected two of her nine rebounds as well.
Hodges gave her teammates credit for helping her perform late in the second half, especially after struggling in the first half.

"I couldn't have done it without my teammates," she said. "After missing my shots in the first half I continued to shoot. I didn't let it get to me. Staying aggressive was key and fortunately we won."

With 58 seconds remaining against the Spartans, guard Samantha Mancinelli '16 hit a layup to put the Judges up 59-51.

Brandeis withstood a late run by Case, hitting free-throws to ice the game. Hodges said the team's success in the final minutes of the second half came from its defensive intensity throughout the game.

"We continued to do what we do best," Hodges said.

"We kept our defensive intensity up and our offense came to us. We executed our game plan."

Brandeis featured three players with double-digit scoring marks. Dean tallied 13 points to join Hodges and guard Niki Laskaris '16 who had 15 points.

Dean also collected nine rebounds and two assists while Brandeis out-rebounded Case 51-32, including 19 offensive rebounds pulled down by the Judges.

The Judges will look to continue their winning streak in a rematch at home against Case this Friday night at 6 p.m.