Box Score Waltham, Mass. - The visiting Trinity College Bantams used
a 12-2 run midway through the second half to pull away for a 71-57
women's basketball victory over the Brandeis University
Judges in the Gosman Athletic Center this afternoon. Trinity
improves to 5-5 and Brandeis drops to 5-5.
Trinity was paced by senior forward Hannah Brickley (Melrose,
Mass.), who scored a game-high 25 points. She hit 7-of-17 from the
floor and 11-of-13 from the line. Classmate Taylor Murtaugh (New
York, N.Y.) added 13 points. Brickley and Murtaugh tied for
game-high honors with nine rebounds, helping the Bantams' to
a 44-32 rebounding edge. Six of Murtaugh's caroms came on the
offensive glass, helping the visitors outpace the Judges in
second-chance points, 19-9 as well. Trinity also outscored Brandeis
from the free-throw line, 22-7.
The Judges had two players score in double figures, with senior
Nicolina Vitale (Clinton, Mich.) tallying 14 points on 6-of-10
shooting with two free throws, and classmate Janelle Rodriguez
(Peabody, Mass.) adding 10 on 4-of-11 with a trifecta and a foul
shot. Senior Kasey Dean (Southbury, Conn.) had a fine all-around
game, with eight points, and team-highs of six rebounds and five
assists, which was matched by Rodriguez.
The first half was a back-and-forth affair that featured four
ties and six lead changes. Neither team led by more than six points
in the first 20 minutes. Brandeis was head, 29-27, with just over
three minutes to go in the stanza after a lay-up by sophomore guard
Samantha Mancinelli (Durham, Conn.). Trinity answered by scoring
eight of the last nine points, with six coming from Brickley, whose
lay-in with 54 seconds remaining gave the Bantams a 35-30 lead at
the break. Brickley finished with 13 first-half points.
After Murtaugh scored the first four points of the second half,
the visitors owned a 39-30 lead less than 90 seconds in. Brandeis
responded by holding their foes to just one bucket over the next
eight minutes. The Judges forced four turnovers in a 14-4 run in
which five different players recorded points. They claimed their
first lead of the second half, 44-43, with 11:43 on the
clock. Trinity answered on its next possession, as sophomore
guard Alexa Menard (Wallingfor, Conn.) hit a three-pointer, the
Bantams' first of the game. That bucket kicked off a 12-2 run
over the next two minutes, as Brickley hit two free throws and a
lay-up, and Menard added another trifecta. Junior Taylor
Higgins' (Merrick, N.Y.) driving lay-up at the 9:13 mark gave
the visitors a 55-46 lead.
Brandeis looked to get closer on a Dean steal and lay-up that
cut the lead to seven, 55-48, with just under nine minutes
remaining, but Brickley answered with two more foul shots and
Higgins connected from downtown to push the lead to 12 points. The
Bantams connected on 8-of-14 from the line down the stretch and got
two offensive rebounds on misses from the charity stripe to close
out the game.