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The Men’s Basketball team spent the weekend alternating between success and struggle as they faced the University of Rochester Yellowjackets and the Emory Eagles. After splitting their matches the Judges stand at 13-4 overall and 3-4 in UAA matches.

Right away in the first 10 minutes of play the lead changed sides seven times. With the help of seven points from freshman Youri Dascy, the Brandeis Judges took the lead to 10-4 in the first two and a half minutes of the game. Unfortunately for the Judges, the Yellowjackets struck back with successful drives and took the lead with a 3-point shot from John Dibartolomeo of Rochester.

Freshman Derek Retos helped lead Brandeis back to the lead at 17-14 at the 11:34 mark. The Yellowjackets returned with a vengeance scoring 14 of the next 16 points bringing the score to 28-19 in favor of Rochester. Brandeis replied with a 6-2 streak closing the gap to 30-25. Rochester closed out the half with a nine point drive outscoring the Judges 39-25.

At the start of the second half Rochester opened up with 6 of 9 attempts to tear open the gap 53-32. The Judges improved their scoring accuracy to 59 percent while the Yellowjackets shot at 64 percent accuracy.

Despite the struggle in the first half, Brandeis came back to outscore Rochester in the second half including Retos scoring 10 more points and leading the Judges’ scoring with 15 points to his credit. Dascy followed with 14 points and led the team with six rebounds. Dascy’s six rebounds additionally outdid anyone on the Rochester squad. Unfortunately for the Judges, outscoring the Yellowjackets in the second half was not enough to overcome the first half deficit.

The teams will meet again Sunday afternoon at noon in Rochester where the Judges will hope to avenge the 77-64 defeat. Before that the Judges will travel to Emory while Rochester hosts NYU.

This weekend was not all bad news for the Judges. Friday night they overcame the Emory Eagles in overtime 86-82.

The Judges started out in full force opening the game with 43 points in the first half. In order to reach this the Judges had a 56.3 percent accuracy well above the Eagles’ 36.4 percent.

Brandeis managed to keep Emory, which had been around 40 percent at three point shots, to 0-9; creating a large scoring gap.

Junior Vytas Kriskus helped lift the lead to 20 points in the second half with a pair of free throws almost halfway into the second half bringing the score to 55-35. Only after reaching a 20 point deficit, Emory came back with 10 unanswered points and by the 5:27 mark the gap had closed to a 63-55 lead for Brandeis.

A pair of foul shots from senior Christian Yemga restored confidence bringing the lead to 68-57 with less than four minutes left. Emory struck back by forcing turnovers and capitalizing on every foul shot they got bringing the score to 69-67 in favor of Brandeis with 1:16 left in regulation.

After a missed three-pointer, freshman Derek Retos was fouled with about 20 seconds left gave Emory a chance to tie the game. After making one of two shots Emory tied the game at 70-70 with a three-point shot sending the game to overtime.

After trading shots, Emory managed to take the lead 77-75 with 3:37 remaining in OT. Brandeis shot back with junior Tyrone Hughes tied the game on his way to a career high 22 points. After keeping the game close, the Judges pulled away with successful foul shots to close the game 86-82.

The Judges and the Eagles will face off again Friday night at Emory. Emory currently stands 14–4 ( 5-2 in the UAA) compared to Brandeis’ 13-4 (3-4 in the UAA).