Men drop 80-63 decision at Carnegie Mellon

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Brandeis University men's basketball team fell victim to a late first-half run as the host Carnegie Mellon University Tartans picked up an 80-63 win in a University Athletic Association (UAA) contest in Skibo Gymnasium tonight. With the loss, the Judges fall to 8-5 overall, 1-1 in the UAA. CMU improves to 7-6, 2-0 UAA.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Brandeis held CMU without a field goal for the first four-and-a-half minutes of the game, but the Judges couldn't take advantage, holding only a 4-1 lead before the hosts scored their first field goal.
• The middle 10 minutes of the first half featured two ties and three lead changes before the Judges knotted the score for a third time at 24-24 on an Eric D'Aguanno (Saunderstown, R.I./St. Andrews School) lay-up at the 4:19 mark.
• At that point, Carnegie Mellon closed the first half on a 14-2 run, with the Tartans' Zach Howarth and Daniel Weiss each hitting two 3-pointers in the string.
• Weiss's second trifecta beat the first-half buzzer to give the home team a 38-26 lead at the break.
• The hosts led by as many as 17 points early in the second half. Brandeis was able to get within 11 points on a four-point possession. Senior Corey Sherman (Penn Valley, Pa./Lower Merion) was fouled at the 8:04 mark and the Tartans were hit with a technical. Sherman hit all of his free throws to cut the CMU lead to 11 at 64-53.
• After getting a stop, Brandeis couldn't respond and CMU connected from downtown on the next possession to halt the Judges' momentum.
• The Tartans led by as many as 21 points after that before the 17-point final margin.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Sherman led the Judges in scoring with 16 points, 11 coming in the second half.  He also dished out a team-high four assists.
• D'Aguanno added 12 points and eight rebounds off the bench, hitting 3-of-6 3-pointers.
• Sophomore Chandler Jones (Springfield, Mass./Springfield Commonwealth Academy) registered his third double-double of the season and the fifth of his career with 10 points and a game- and career-high 13 rebounds. Jones had nine points and 10 caroms in the first half alone.
• CMU put four players in double digits in scoring, including Ethan Miller's 18 points  off the bench. Miller connected on 4-of-5 from downtown, 1-1 from two-point range, and 4-of-4 from the line.
• Howarth added 15 points, while Seth Henry and Trent Suddeth had 10 points each.
• Henry led Carnegie Mellon with eight rebounds, while Howard had seven.
• Colin McNeil led the home team with eight assists and added four steals.
• CMU outscored Brandeis, 39-24, from 3-point range, connecting a 50 percent clip (13-26).
• Brandeis lost despite controlling the boards, 45-32.

UP NEXT

• The Judges meet Case Western Reserve University in a UAA contest on Sunday at 12 noon in Cleveland.
• Carnegie Mellon takes on NYU at home at the same time.