Tartans Suffer Road Defeat at Brandeis

(WALTHAM, Mass.) – The Carnegie Mellon University women's basketball team lost a heartbreaker on Sunday, January 28 at Brandeis University when the Judges held on for a 55-52 win. The Tartans are now 9-9 and 1-6 in the University Athletic Association (UAA) while the Judges move to 11-6 and 3-4.

Sophomore Makayla Filiere (Chandler, Ariz. / Hamilton) led the Tartans with 24 points and four assists while sophomore Laurel Pereira (Naperville, Ill. / Naperville North) scored 16 points off the bench.

Pereira made a layup and free throw to tie the score at 8-8 after nearly six minutes of action in the first quarter but Brandeis answered with a three-pointer and held on to a 15-14 first-quarter lead.

The lead changed hands three times in the second quarter with the last lead favoring the Tartans after a layup by sophomore Laura Ochsner (Chester Springs, Pa. / Downingtown STEM Academy) and a triple by Filiere made the score 24-23, with 4:19 to go. Filiere hit her third three-pointer of the game just more than two minutes later and the Tartans held a 29-25 halftime lead after shooting 42.9 percent from the floor and holding Brandeis to 25.8 percent shooting for the half.

Brandeis improved its shooting by 11 percent in the third quarter and took a two-point lead into the final period where they wouldn't relinquish the lead. The Tartans pulled to within two late but a free throw by Noel Hodges with four seconds left forced the Tartans into a desperation three-pointer for the tie that fell short.

The Tartans finished the game shooting 38 percent from the floor as both teams turned the ball over 23 times. Twenty-one offensive rebounds for the Judges led to 12 second chance points which made up for their 27.4 percent shooting effort for the game.

The Tartans will return home to face New York University on Friday, February 2 before hosting the Judges on Sunday at 2:00 p.m.