CHICAGO, Ill. – Despite not playing in a month and 10 days, the Brandeis University men's basketball team picked up a 62-47 University Athletic Association win at the University of Chicago tonight. Graduate student Tommy Eastman (Honeoye Falls, N.Y./Honeoye Falls-Lima) led the way with a game-high 20 points, including the 1,000th of his career. With the win, the Judges improve to 8-2 overall, 1-0 in the UAA. The Maroons fall to 5-9, 0-3 UAA.
Eastman was the star of the game for the Judges. After scoring a team-high 10 points in the first half, he reached his milestone with a 3-pointer with 16:39 left in the game. He finished the contest shooting 9-for-13 from the field, 1-for-2 from beyond the arc and 1-for-2 from the free-throw line. Eastman also finished second on the team with six rebounds. Eastman reached the 1,000-point plateau at three different schools, scoring 553 at SUNY Geneseo as a first-year and sophomore. He tallied 367 points at Middlebury College in 2019-20 as a senior, and is now at 87 points at Brandeis, giving him 1,007 overall.
The Judges also got 11 points from first-year forward Toby Harris (Durham, N.C./Durham Academy), who shot 5-for-10 from the field with a 3-pointer. Senior Chandler Jones (Springfield, Mass./Springfield Commonwealth Academy) added nine points and game-highs of four assists and seven rebounds off the bench. Jones led the Judges to a 35-28 advantage on the boards. Brandeis shot just under 50 percent from the field for the game (22-46, 47.8%) while holding UC 35.3% (18-51), including 5.6% from 3-point range (1-18) after missing their first 17 attempts from downtown.
Chicago was paced by forward Zach Munson, who scored 19 points and grabbed five rebounds, both team-highs. Bryce Hopkins finished with eight points for the home team, while Brandon Beckman had three assists.
The first half of the contest featured four ties and five lead changes. The Maroons led by as many as eight points when Hopkins hit a jumper with 13:45 to make it 14-6. Brandeis trailed 22-17 on a Munson bucket with 8:02 to go in the first half, but the Judges closed the stanza on a 14-6 run to take a 31-28 lead into the locker room. Eastman had six points and Jones added four in the closing run. Brandeis opened the second half on a 12-4 run over the first four minutes of the second half, with Jones, Eastman and Harris all contributing 3-pointers as the Judges pushed their lead to double digits and never looked back.
The Judges return to action on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. (12 Central) when they take on UAA lead and #4-ranked Washington University on the road in St. Louis.