Shorthanded men fall at Case, 56-47

Youri Dascy '15 (photo by Jan Volk/Sportspix.biz)
Youri Dascy '15 (photo by Jan Volk/Sportspix.biz)

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Missing three of their top five scorers for the second game in a row, the Brandeis University men's basketball team was unable to pull a second-straight comeback as the Judges fell to host Case Western Reserve University, 56-47, in Horsburgh Gym today. With the loss, the Judges fall to 16-6 overall, 7-4  in the University Athletic Association. The Spartans even their record at 11-11 overal, 4-7 in the UAA.

While the Judges welcomed back junior guard Gabriel Moton (St. Petersburg, Fla./St. Petersburg) , who missed Friday night's game at Carnegie Mellon, they were still without classmates Alex Stoyle (Goffstown, N.H./Tilton School) and Ben Bartoldus (Hillsborough, N.H./Proctor Acad.), who were out due to illness and an injury suffered at CMU. Brandeis then lost guard Derek Retos (No. Attleboro, Mass./Brimmer and May School) – who had played all 40 minutes two nights earlier – after just three minutes of action today. The three missing players were averaging between 9.1 and 10.1 points per game.

Brandeis led, 12-7, at the 14:16 mark on a jumper by senior center Wouter can der Eng (Alphen aun der Rijn, Netherlands/Kimball Union Acad., Vt.), their largest lead of the game. The Judges were still ahead, 14-13, with 12:27 on the clock when they hit a cold spell, going nearly eight minutes without scoring. Case scored 10 unanswered points in that span, and the Spartans closed the stanza on a 13-4 run to take a 26-18 lead into the halftime. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Tim Chung helped the hosts pull away before the break. Chung and Dane McLoughlin matched Moton with seven points each in the first half. Case shot 42.3 percent from the floor in the first half (11-26), while the Judges were just 25.8% (8-31).

An 8-3 stretch for Case to open the second half established a double-digit lead that the visitors were never able to recover from. The Spartans led by as many as 21 points with 2:35 left in the game before Brandeis scored the final 12 points of the contest from beyond the 3-point arc for the final nine-point margin. Senior Jay Freeman (Dorchester, Mass./St. Marks School) hit three in a row from downtown, with junior center Youri Dascy (Fall River, Mass./St. Andrews, R.I., School) connecting for his first career trifecta with eight seconds left.

Dascy finished with a team-high 16 points, but he hit just 5-of-16 from the field. Moton added 12 points on 5-of-17, while Freeman's late flurry gave him nine points. Dascy added 11 rebounds to lead all players and register his second double-double of the season and the seventh of his career. Freeman and Moton had two assists each. The Judges' 47 points were their fewest since their season-opening loss at Rhode Island College, while shooting a season-low 29.5 percent from the field (18-61), well below their previous low of 37.9%. Earlier this season at home, Brandeis had shot nearly 30 percentage points higher against Case, 59.1%.

The Spartans were paced by 15 points from Austin Fowler, 11 of which came after the break. McLoughlin finished with 12 points, while Julien Person also registered a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Jimmy Holman led all players with five assists, while David Thompson blocked four Brandeis shots.

The Judges return home next weekend for two more UAA games, taking on the University of Chicago on Friday night at 6 p.m. and Washington University Sunday at 11 a.m. on Senior Day.