In the past three games, the women's basketball team beat the Case Western Reserve University Spartans at home 81-69, barely lost to the University of Chicago Marooners 55-62 in their first UAA road game of the season and fell to Washington University 70-54. The squad fell to 10-6 overall on the season after this week and 2-3 in the UAA. Brandeis was led by center Maria Jackson ’17, who scored a whopping 22 points against Case and 12 points along with a dominant nine rebounds against a tough Chicago team. 

Judges 81, Case 69

Brandeis hosted Case in an impressive display of offense by both squads. The game began with a hot first quarter on both sides, in which the Spartans went 9-16 from the field, and Brandeis 6-12. Due to the Spartans’ tremendously strong start, the Judges trailed 26-17 after the first quarter. In the second quarter, the Judges were trailing 21-29 when guard Frankie Pinto ’17 drained two triples to tie the game at 29. Case took off once more, and the half ended with Brandeis trailing 41-36. The Judges shot lights-out in the third quarter, knocking down 11 shots in a row for a dominant run. Brandeis gave up five of the last seven points of the quarter to Case, to finish the third winning 66-57.

At the start of the fourth, the Spartans went on an 8-3 run to cut the lead to three, and the game began to feel like a nail-biter. The fourth quarter was a hard-fought battle, but in the end, the Judges fought with grit and edged out a slight lead. This paid off as they managed to secure the grueling final minutes of play by knocking down a few important freethrow shots.

Judges 55, Chicago 62

Later in the week, the Judges flew to Chicago to play against a strong Marooners team. The Judges started the game strong, scoring eight of the first 10 points, but unfortunately were unable to maintain the lead, as Chicago increased their intensity to come back and take a 17-14 lead. The second period was a challenge for Brandeis, as they were held to just 2-13 shooting while Chicago shot a ridiculous 10-18 from the field. The score at halftime was 37-19, with Chicago leading. 

The Judges were trailing by 17 points with 6 minutes left in the game when they mounted a 10-3 run, cutting the lead to 10. With under a minute left, the Judges knocked down a couple of threes to cut what was an 11-point deficit to just five points. Unfortunately for the Judges, successful free throws by Chicago made a comeback impossible.

Judges 54, WashU 70

The Judges struggled coming out of the box, scoring only six points in the first quarter of play. The team trailed in each of the subsequent quarters, only to score a game-high of 20 in the fourth. The team’s starters had a rough go on the day, posting single digit points in the game. Guard Kate Gonacalo ’20 posted the only double-digits on the team, managing to pour in eight points in the last quarter and another two in the second. 

The Judges’ 38.9 field-goal percentage proved to be one of the deciding factors in the game, with WashU shooting over 50 percent. The stat box was fairly even the rest of the way, with the Judges only lagging in the assists category. The team managed eight assists versus Washington’s impressive total of 17. 

Overall, it was a hard outing for the team, as Brandeis fell to sixth place in the conference and a 2-3 conference record. The Judges will battle it out against Emory University this coming Friday as the team prepares to face the fifth-place Eagles. 

Carnegie Mellon University currently holds the first-place title with only one overall loss.