Washington University’s women’s basketball came from behind to defeat UAA arch-rival New York University with a score of 66-60 on Friday night. The win put an end to the Violets’ 27 game home winning streak and kept the Lady Bears tied with No. 12 ranked University of Rochester atop the UAA at 4-0.

The weekend did not end as well for the Bears (12-4, 4-1 UAA) as they suffered a 66-46 loss to Brandeis University (12-4, 3-2 UAA) in Boston, dropping the team to second place in the UAA.

Wash. U. 66, NYU 60

The Bears demonstrated mental toughness in winning the game. After trailing 12-4 on only 2-14 shooting, the Bears cut the lead to 21-14, only to see NYU go on an 11-1 run. Head Coach Nancy Fahey was forced to waste her third time out of the first half in order to stop the Violets, and Wash. U. ended the half with an 8-0 run to cut the score to 32-23.

The Bears rebounded from a poor first half and shot 45.5 percent for the remainder of the game. More importantly, the Lady Bears took advantage of an area where NYU faltered, the free throw line. Wash. U. shot 13-19 for the game and 3-6 in the second half. While not their best showing, the Red and Green out-shot NYU from the charity stripe, as the Violets were 10-20 for the game and only 6-15 in the second half.

Junior Jill Brandt led the scoring effort with 19 points on 6-11 shooting and 5-6 from the free throw line; she also shot 3-4 from behind the arc. Classmate Halsey Ward added 10 points off the bench, including the only other three pointer for the Red and Green.

Aside from Brandt, scoring was distributed relatively evenly throughout the game, with sophomore Janice Evans, freshman Kathryn Berger, junior Shanna-Lei Dacanay, and freshman Alex Hoover chipping in eight points while sophomore Zoe Unruh scored the remaining five.

“It was a big win. We were really excited, but we refocused on Saturday for Brandeis. It was an emotional win, and we knew that Brandeis would be ready for us and use it against us,” stated Ward.

Brandeis 66 Wash. U. 46

However, the Brandeis Judges were not intimidated by the Lady Bears and thrashed Wash. U. 66-48. The Lady Bears led 25-23 at halftime, only to be outscored 23-43 for the remainder of the game.

Brandt and Ward led the attack with 11 and 12 points respectively, but they were the only player in double figures. Wash. U. only shot 25 percent from the floor while allowing Brandeis to shoot 41.5 percent and 17-28 from the free throw line.

For Brandeis, Jaime Capra, Cassidy Dadaos, Jessica Chapin, and Lauren Orlando scored in double figures, and their combined points would have been enough to defeat Wash. U. by three points.

“We didn’t execute what our coach told us to do. We definitely had open looks, which didn’t go in. It’s hard to beat any team shooting 20%,” said Ward. “We didn’t do anything on defense.”

The loss ended the Bears’ seven game winning streak and dropped Wash. U. to second in the UAA with a 4-1 conference record. However, the Bears could regain a share of first place in the UAA with a win at Rochester on Friday night. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. Eastern time.

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