ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Playing in front of an empty crowd on the road at Washington University, the Brandeis University women's basketball team dropped a second-straight contest to a top-25 University Athletic Association contest, with the #15 Bears winning, 62-49.

TEAM RECORDS

• Brandeis: 11-5, 1-4 UAA.
• Washington Univ.: 12-4, 3-2 UAA, ranked #15 in Division III by d3hoops.com.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Both teams struggled offensively in the first quarter, combining to hit just three of 23 field-goal attempts as the Bears took a 7-5 lead.
• The Judges had their best period of the game in the second. After WashU's Lexy Harris hit a bucket with 6:43 to go to make it 9-7, Brandeis scored 12 of the game's next 14 points to take a 19-11 lead on a bucket by graduate student Elena Delicado (Madrid, Spain/IES Parque de Lisboa). Delicado scored six of the team's 12 points in the run.
• Another Delicado hoop made it 21-13 with 2:34 to go before WashU scored the last five points of the half to close within 21-18 at the break.
• Delicado and sophomore Saviah Shabazz (Plano, Texas/Plano West) each had eight first-half points to lead both sides.
• The Judges were still ahead by six midway through the third quarter, taking a 31-25 lead when Abby Kennedy (Half Moon Bay, Calif./Half Moon Bay) scored with 5:31 left.
• WashU answered by closing the third quarter on a 12-4 run, as the Bears claimed their first lead of the second half on a 3-pointer by Sydney Starks with 44 seconds to go, giving them a 37-35 lead headed into the final 10 minutes.
• The Bears' Jordan Rich hit a 3-pointer to start the fourth quarter to extend the hosts' lead to five points at 40-35. They would go on to outscore Brandeis, 25-14, in the period, hitting 46.2% from the field (6-13) while holding Brandeis to 35% (4-16). WashU also made 11-of-13 from the line as they pulled away for the 13-point win.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

• Delicado finished with a career-high 13 points, hitting 6-of-13 from the field with a free throw.
• Kennedy added nine points and Shabazz had eight points and a team-high four assists.
• Senior Katherine Vaughan (Bedford, Mass./Bedford) grabbed 10 rebounds, tied for game-high honors, helping the Judges win the battle of the boards, 47-37.
• WashU got 17 points each from Rich and Harris, while Catherine Goodwin scored 12.
• Harris matched Vaughan with 10 rebounds, while Sydney Rogers had five assists.
• The Bears won the turnover battle, 14-5, and outscored Brandeis, 14-0, on those miscues. They also had a 21-11 scoring advantage from the line and made five 3-pointers to just two for Brandeis.

UP NEXT

• Brandeis will return home next weekend to play Carnegie Mellon on Friday, January 30^th at 7:30 p.m.