PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Brandeis University women's basketball team played even with host Carnegie Mellon for three of four quarters, but a cold second quarter was costly as the Judges lost to the Tartans, 66-51, in University Athletic Association action tonight. With the loss, the Judges fall to 6-11 overall, 1-9 in the UAA. The Tartans improve to 10-9, 4-6 UAA.

Brandeis trailed by just two points, 14-12, after one quarter, but the Judges were unable to find their scoring in the second. They hit just one of their 17 field goal attempts as CMU outscored them, 21-6, in the period. The Tartans' Isha Nambisan caught fire in the quarter, scoring 12 points on 4-of-5 from 3-point range. Trailing 35-18 at the half and 56-34 after three, the Judges battled back in the fourth, outscoring CMU, 17-10, but there was not enough time for a full comeback.

Brandeis was paced by senior Camila Casanueva (Santa Barbara, Calif./Dos Pueblos), who scored 12 points in the contest, and sophomore Christina Bacon (Scituate, R.I. / LaSalle Academy), who tallied 11 points in just nine minutes off the bench, thanks to 2-of-3 shooting from the floor and 7-of-8 from the line. First-year forward Caitlin Gresko (Howell, N.J./Howell) pulled down a team-high eight rebounds, two shy of her career-high. Junior Emma Reavis (Miami, Okla./Deerfield, Mass., Acad.) had a fine all-around game with eight points, seven rebounds and a team-high five assists.

CMU was paced by Nambisan, who led all players with a career-high 23 points, hitting 8-of-17 overall, 7-of-14 from beyond the arc. Anish Chintala, Catherine Or and Anika Prasad each scored nine points for the Tartans. Caitlyn Clendenin had a game-high 15 rebounds, keying the Tartans to a 46-36 advantage on the boards. She also had six assists, tied with Or for game-high honors. The Tartans shot 39% from the field for the game (25-65), while holding Brandeis to 29% (17-59), but the advantage was even more stark from beyond the 3-point line, where CMU hit 43% (13-30) compared to 12% for the Judges (3-25).

Brandeis returns to action on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. when they take on Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.