BABSON PARK, Mass. – Despite a near double-double from sophomore Quron Zene (WIndsor, Conn./IMG Academy), the Brandeis University men's basketball team dropped their second-straight contest, 78-65, at local rival Babson today.

TEAM RECORDS

• Brandeis: 1-2.
• Babson: 3-2.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The first half featured three ties and three lead changes. Babson ran out to early leads of 6-0 and 8-2, but the Judges eventually caught the Beavers on a 3-pointer by senior Ryan Power (Waltham, Mass./Waltham) that made it 12-10 just over five minutes into the contest.
• Power's trifecta launched Brandeis on an 11-2 run that saw junior Toby Harris (Durham, N.C./Durham Academy) score five points, while senior Aedan Using (Old Lyme, Conn./Old Lyme) connected from beyond the arc to give the Judges their largest lead, 20-13, at the 13:07 mark.
• Babson answered with the game's next eight points to go up by one at 21-20, before Brandeis junior Gilbert Otoo (Burtonsville, Md./St. Vincent Pallotti) connected twice from beyond the arc to give Brandeis the lead twice.
• The Beavers' Steph Baxter scored the next five points of the game, putting the home team back on top, 28-26, with a pair of free throws with just under eight minutes left in the first half.
• They extended the run to 11-1, capped by a Nate Amado dunk with just under four minutes left in the half to make it 37-27.
• Brandeis closed within six again on a 3-pointer by sophomore Ethan Edwards (Brooklyn, N.Y./Woodstock Academy), but Babson scored seven points in the final two minutes to take a 47-36 lead into halftime.
• The Judges got within seven when Zene dialed long distance just under three minutes into the second half to make it 50-43.
• Brandeis got several defensive stops over the next five minutes of action, but could not convert, and Babson's Timmy O'Toole eventually made them pay, converting a follow-up dunk and a 3-pointer that pushed the Beaver advantage back to 12 at 55-43 with 12:43 remaining.
• The visitors would not get their deficit within single digits the rest of the way with Babson leading by as many as 23 points before the final 13-poit margin of victory.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Zene led the Judges with 13 points and nine rebounds, just missing the first double-double of his season and the third of his career.
• Harris also scored 13 points, while grabbing six boards.
• Edwards finished with nine points and was one of five Judges tied for team-high honors with two assists.
• Babson was led by Amato, who scored 26 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Baxter added 19 points, while O'Toole had 17 points and game-highs of 15 rebounds (eight on the offensive boards, one more than the entire Brandeis team) and four steals.  
• After shooting just 35.7% from the field (10-28) in the first half but 50% (7-14) from 3-point range, the Judges were just 1-for-8 from downtown in the second and 33.3% overall (9-27) in the second.
• The Beavers won the turnover battle, 14-9, and turned those miscues into a 15-4 advantage in points off turnovers.

UP NEXT

• The Judges return to action the Sunday after Thanksgiving with a 1 p.m. game at Rhode Island College.