The men’s basketball team got rejected by their Brandeis University opponents on Valentine’s Day — they lost by a score of 66-69 in the Palestra.
UR graduate student Bennett Kwiecinski (#11) opened the scoring for both teams after scoring a transition layup off a turnover by Brandeis junior Jake Bender (#4). However, junior Elias Rodl (#20) scored a layup of his own on the following possession.
Brandeis jumped ahead 10-3 in the coming minutes as they capitalized on poor fast break defense from UR to score a layup, and Rodl scored a three-pointer after stealing the ball from Kwiecinski. UR gained a bit of momentum over the next four minutes as graduate student Nate Sock (#22) sank a jump shot to keep it a seven-point game.
UR got the lead down to four with two free throws made by junior Tomiwa Adetosoye (#8) following a foul on the fast break. After two penalty shots from Brandeis, UR closed the gap to three when senior Logan Jagodzinski (#12) drained a triple to make it a 27-24 game. Neither team could mount a serious run, and UR could not make a dent in the deficit.
Jagodzinski’s next impact bucket came with 17 seconds left in the half — he threw down a dunk to make the lead six. However, Brandeis scored a layup with two seconds to go to preserve the lead at eight.
UR opened the second half on a 7-2 run after giving up a layup on the first possession of the half. Minutes later, UR surrendered two offensive rebounds in a humorous incident that saw Brandeis fail to convert on two three-pointers and a layup.
Junior Corvin Oprea (#5) scored two for UR on a fast break layup to cut the lead to four with 15 minutes left in the half. The teams traded layups soon thereafter, with Brandeis coming out on top by six. Neither team scored for nearly two minutes until Jagodzinski scored another three to make it a one possession game.
Over the next seven minutes, Sock hit a triple to tie the game.
After Brandeis senior Toby Harris(#30) responded with his own three, UR scored two layups to take the lead 62-61. Jagodzinski scored the second on the fast break after stealing the ball from Brandeis graduate student Sam Adusei (#1) with four minutes left in the contest. UR surrendered two more offensive rebounds on the next possession, leading to a successful layup for Rodl.
Jagodzinski scored UR’s next two points via free throw with two and a half minutes to go, allowing UR to lead 64-63. UR then gave up an offensive rebound to Adusei, who tipped the ball back in the basket to make it 65-64 for Brandeis.
The final two minutes were wrought with fouls from both sides, although neither team scored until UR was forced to foul with 17 seconds left. After putting Adusei at the line, he converted both and made it a 67-64 game.
Desperate for points, UR successfully drew a foul on Adusei, putting Kwiecinski at the stripe. He also made both. Without options, UR fouled Adusei again, who made both free throws. UR inbounded the ball from their own baseline (they were out of timeouts) and failed to make a game-saving three with two seconds left.
Jagodzinski led both teams with 24 points on 8-16 shooting and four three-pointers, whereas Brandeis had four players in double figures to UR’s two, closing out the game.
