PITTSBURGH, Pa. - Senior guard Jessica Chapin
(Mendon, N.Y./Honeoye Falls-Lima) carried the day with a pair of
Brandeis women's basketball single-game records, scoring 36 points
and hitting seven 3-pointers, as the Judges defeated Carnegie
Mellon, 59-50, in a University Athletic Association contest today.
With the win, the Judges improve to 13-6 overall, 6-3 in the UAA,
while the Tartans fall to 8-12, 1-8 UAA.
Chapin scored her record tally on 9-of-15 shooting overall,
7-of-9 from beyond the arc and 11-of-13 from the line. She had 17
points in the first half - including the team's first 11 -
and 19 in the second, with 15 of the squad's final 16 - to
accountefor 61 percent of the team's scoring and nine of their 17
field goals (52%). Chapin, who has had a 33- and 32-point game this
season, broke the previous record of 34 points set by Pam
Vaughan '90 that had stood for 20 years. Chapin also had a
team-high four steals. No other Brandeis player had more than six
points. Sophomore forward Shannon Hassan
(Merrimack, N.H./Merrimack) led the Judges with six rebounds, while
junior guard Diana Cincotta (Plymouth, Mass./West
Boylston) led the squad with three assists.
Carnegie Mellon had two players score in double figures.
Sophomore center Jennifer Larsen (Exeter, N.H./Exeter) led the
Tartans with 15 points, while rookie Brit Phillips (Parma,
Ohio/\Normandy) added 10 and tied Chapin with four steals.
Rookie forward Emily Peel (Long Valley, N.J./West Morris Central)
came off the bench to lead CMU with 10 rebounds, including four on
the offensive glass.
The first half was a close affair that featured seven ties and
10 lead changes. Chapin scored Brandeis's first 11 points,
including three 3-pointers, as the Judges took an 11-8 lead just
over four-and-a-half minutes into the contest. After a lengthy
scoreless drought, sophomore guard Nicole Vaccarella (Colts
Neck, N.J./Colts Neck) drained a 3-pointer, sparking a 10-2 Tartan
run over the next five minutes that put the hosts ahead, 18-13,
with 8:30 left in the stanza. Brandeis battled back to score five
in a row, a bomb from Cincotta and two Kasey
Gieschen (Boonton Township, N.J./Mountain Lakes) free
throws, that tied the game at 18-18. Neither team could pull away,
and two Chapin freebies with 10 seconds left gave the Judges a
28-26 halftime lead.
CMU scored the first bucket of the second half to tie the game
at 28-28 and hung around, staying even at 37-37 with just over 13
minutes left in the contest. Two Hassan free throws and a nice post
move by rookie forward Shannon Ingram (Floral Park, N.Y./Floral
Park Memorial) made it a two possession game at 41-37 with
11:39 to go. CMU senior forward Rachelle Roll (Ostrander,
Ohio/Buckeye Valley) converted a traditional three-point play with
6:08 remaining to close the Tartans to within 43-41 when Chapin
took over the contest again. She scored 15 straight Brandeis points
- including 3-pointers on three-straight possessions - as the Judge
defense held the Tartans without a bucket for six minutes until a
meaningless buzzer beater.
Brandeis is next in action on Friday evening at 6 p.m. when they
take on the University of Chicago in another home UAA contest.
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