The Brandeis Women’s Basketball team continues their season by playing two more University Athletic Association rivals. This week, the Judges lost to the Emory University Eagles and the University of Rochester Yellowjackets making the team 7–11 overall and 3–5 in the UAA. Looking ahead, the Judges will take on Carnegie Mellon University on Friday at 6 p.m.

Judges 66, Rochester 42

The Judges’ most recent loss was against the Yellowjackets in the Red Auerbach Arena on Sunday afternoon. According to the Brandeis Athletics website, the Judges actually led going into the second half but fell behind in the final two quarters of play. The game began with a jump shot start within the first twenty seconds of the game, putting Rochester ahead 2–0. In fact, the Yellowjackets were up 6–0 before Kat Puda ’21 made a three-point shot to put the Judges on the map, and despite a Yellowjacket layup that increased their lead to 10–5, the Judges led at the end of the quarter 14–18. The second quarter brought a similar fate, as the Judges fought with the same energy as the first quarter. Although Rochester tied the game at 20 points, the Judges led the rest of the quarter and would end the half ahead by an impressive margin of 32–41. However, come the third quarter Rochester outshot the Judges 16–10, closing the gap in the score, and although a jumpshot by Hannah Nicholson ’20 left the Judges ahead 48–51 in the quarter, the gap was clearly closing, adding suspense as to what the final quarter would have in store.

 The fourth quarter began with Rochester pulling ahead of the Judges after three layups by the Yellowjacket’s Lena Ethington and Julianna Okoniewski — Okoniewskis scoring two of them — during the first minute of the quarter. With the score now 54–51, the Judges continued to fall behind with a three-point shot by Rochester’s Tessa Ludwick with 8:46 to go in the game. The Judges in fact would not even score again until there was 5:56 left in the game when Puda made two free throws, making a score of 62–53. Overall, the Judges were not able to overcome the lead the Yellowjackets formed at the beginning of the quarter that would capture the victory.

Emory 72, Judges 42

According to the Brandeis Athletics website, the women suffered a 72–42 setback to Emory University ln Friday evening at home. The Eagles scored the first eight points of the game, and the Judges never managed to overcome and pull ahead to capture the victory. This was also a season-low in points scored in one game for the Judges with only 42 points, despite players like Camila Casanueva ’21 leading the team with ten points, a double digit amount. After the first quarter, the Judges were behind by eleven points, and the score was 21–10, and although they outscored the Eagles in the second quarter, 17–14, it was not enough to overtake the team and create any type of lead. The score at the half was 35–27, leaving the Judges still behind by eight points. At the end of the third, Sarah Jaromin ’19 scored  two free throws with four seconds on the clock to advance the Judges to 36 points, but they were still 20 points behind their rival team. 

In the last quarter, the Judges were not able to come back to win the game. In fact, it took just under a minute for either team to score, when Kerry Tanke ’22 made a free throw to make the score 56–37. However, from there it took until there was 6:59 left in the game before anyone scored again, and it was Erin Lindahl for the Eagles who put the Eagles ahead more 58–37. The quarter continued with a relatively slow pace of scoring as the game would finally conclude with the Eagles ahead and a final score of 72–42. 

The team's next game is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 8, against Carnegie Mellon University. The team  has five more games this season between now and Feb. 23.