WALTHAM, Mass. - The Brandeis University men's basketball team bounced back today with a win over Chicago University, 67-36, in an important University Athletic Association contest. With the victory, the Judges climb to 12-6, 5-2 in the UAA, while Chicago falls to 2-16, 2-5 in the UAA. The win was the 250th in the career for head coach Brian Meehan, his 90th at Brandeis.
In this low-scoring affair, only four players scored in double figures. Leading the four was Brandeis rookie Vytas Kriskus (Kvedarna, Lithuania/Holderness School, N.H.) who had a career high 15 points in 18 minutes played, 13 of them coming in the second half. He was followed by grad student Steve DeLuca (Merrimack, N.H./Merrimack) and senior Kevin Olson (Rockport, Mass./Rockport) who combined shooting 9-for-15 for 25 points. Olson was perfect on the day capitalizing on each of the four shots he had, three of them being 3-pointers. Rich Magee (Burke, Va./Lake Braddock) also had a solid performance contributing six points and a game- and career-high 10 rebounds.
Chicago junior forward John Kinsella (Chicago, Ill./University High School) had a team-high 10 points along with three rebounds in the losing effort. Accompanying Kinsella was senior forward Adam Machones (Duluth, Minn./Marshall), who led the Maroons in rebounding with six along with eight points on 3-for-5 shooting from the field. Junior guard Jake Pancratz (Schaumburg, Ill./Schaumburg) had the game-high with six assists.
Both teams started off slow with Brandeis jumping out to a 6-0 lead four minutes into the first half, with both teams' defenses causing turnovers and missed shots. The Judges forced 10 turnovers in the first half while holding the Maroons' offense to 3-for-18 (16.7%) from the field. The offensive production was slow until Brandeis junior Andre Roberson (Springfield, Mass./Wilbraham & Monson Acad.) hit a jumper with six minutes to play in the first half. After this point the Judges went on to a 14-2 run to close out the stanza. Deluca had two big 3-pointers at the end of the run that gave the Judges a 27-12 lead at the break.
The second half was all Brandeis. Over the first eight minutes of play they went on a 19-5 run, extending the lead to 46-17. Highlighting the run was the defense displayed by the Judges, with five turnovers caused by four steals - two by Deluca and one each by Kenny Small (Stratford, Conn./Stratford) and Magee - which resulted in points for the Judges. Kriskus was the point producer for the Judges, having 13 points in only 13 minutes in the second half. The lead never dropped inside 20 points in the final 14 minutes of the contest.
Brandeis finished the contest shooting 43.6 percent from the field and holding the Maroons to a field goal percentage of only 27.3 percent. Chicago's 19 turnovers led to Brandeis capitalizing on the offensive end with 22 points.
Brandeis now looks forward to this upcoming weekend trip where they will face Chicago University and Washington University on February 6 and February 8.