WALTHAM, Mass. –  In a contest that featured 16 lead changes and six ties, the Brandeis University women's basketball team closed the game on a 14-2 run to defeat the visiting Washington University Bears in a University Athletic Association contest tonight.

TEAM RECORDS

• Brandeis: 11-8, 4-4 UAA.
• Washington U., 13-6, 4-4 UAA.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Judges held the Bears at bay for much of the first half. They never trailed in the first period, leading by as many as five points before taking a 15-12 lead after 10 minutes. Senior Lulu Ohm (Waltham, Mass./Waltham) led the way with five points.
• The Bears started strong in the second, scoring the first five points to take their first lead of the game, 17-15, on a Jessica Brooks 3-pointer.
• The lead would change hands three more times in the second before Brandeis went on a 7-0 run that was capped by a 3-pointer from junior Abby Kennedy (Half Moon Bay, Calif./Half Moon Bay) that gave the hosts a 25-19 lead with 7:13 left in the half.
• WashU closed with in a point, but five-straight points from Kennedy put the Judges ahead, 30-24 with 3:13 to go.
• The Bears held Brandeis scoreless the rest of the period, scoring four more points as Brandeis took a 30-28 lead into the locker room.
• Kennedy led all players with 11 points in the first half, eight coming in the second period, while Lexy Harris had nine to pace the Bears.
• The lead traded hands four more times in the third, along with three ties.
• Brandeis held the only two-possession lead of the stanza after senior Caitlin Gresko (Howell, N.J./Howell) hit 3-of-4 from the line, the last two making it 35-31 with 6:21 on the clock.
• WashU's Jordan Rich eventually tied the contest at 46-all with 1:12 left, but Brandeis grad student Elena Delicado (Madrid, Spain/IES Parque de Lisboa) made a nice post move on the last possession of the period to give Brandeis a 48-46 lead headed into the final stanza.
• After the Bears' Alyssa Hughes opened the final quarter with a 3-pointer to put them on top, 49-48, the teams traded buckets on the next six possessions.
• WashU took its last lead with 5:33 to go in the game on a put-back by Brooks that made it 55-54 in favor of the Bears.
• The Brandeis defense held the visitors to just one field goal the rest of the way. After two scoreless minutes, junior Katherine Vaughan (Bedford, Mass./Bedford) gave Brandeis the lead for good with a put-back of her own that made it 56-55 with 3:03 remaining.
• The Judges got a stop, and senior Mollie Obar (North Yarmouth, Maine/Greeley) connected from downtown to extend the lead to four points.
• WashU's Harris answered with her team's last bucket, but Obar found Delicado open for a jumper with 1:41 left, and a high arcing 3-pointer from Kennedy with 58 ticks left iced it.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Kennedy finished with a game-high and career-high-tying 20 points, shooting 8-of-17 overall, 4-of-7 from 3-point range. She also had five rebounds.
• Ohm added 17 points on 6-of-17 overall, 2-of-3 from deep and 3-of-3 from the line, while tying for game-high honors with Obar with four assists.
• Vaughan finished with eight points, a team-high-tying nine rebounds, and two blocked shots .
• Junior Brooke Reed (Chantilly, Va./Westfield) matched Vaughan's nine rebounds as the Judges owned a 40-32 advantage on the boards.
• Brandeis shot 43.1% from the field (25-58) and 47.1% from 3-point range (8-17) a week after shooting just 28.6% overall and 20.8% from downtown in the teams' previous meeting in St. Louis.
• The Judges also reversed the rebounding margin, after WashU had a plus-22 advantage last week.
• In the game, the Bears were led by Harris, who turned in a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds.
• Brooks added 13 points and six boards before fouling out, while Hughes had 11 points.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• With her two blocks, Vaughan set school records for blocks in a season (41), breaking her own mark, and in a career (92), breaking the mark of Natalia Zubko '00 that had stood for 25 years.
• Coupled with the men's 87-79 win earlier in the evening, the Judges swept the Bears for just the third time in program history, and the first since 2022.
• With four wins in UAA play this season, the Judges are tied for third in the league, just a game out of second place, and have their most conference victories since 2017-18.

UP NEXT

• Brandeis will take on the University of Chicago on Sunday at noon. The Judges defeated the Maroons, 72-66, in overtime last week. UC lost to NYU this evening, 80-58.