The Justice

Media Credit: David Sheppard-Brick Center Rich Magee '10 extends over two Bowdoin College defenders in the Judges' win last Saturday. Photo by David Sheppard-Brick/the Justice.

With the clock winding down in the men's basketball team's 68-53 second round NCAA tournament victory over Bowdoin College last Saturday, fans' chants of "warm up the bus!" filled Red Auerbach Arena. Upon the game's conclusion, players waved their arms in the air and embraced Brandeis' student section, walking off the court in the midst of Brandeis' deepest tournament run in three decades.

The Judges' win over Bowdoin was preceded by an 80-59 victory over Lasell College in the first round last Friday. Brandeis has earned its first third-round berth since 1978 and will play at No. 7 State University of New York at Plattsburgh Friday at 8:15 p.m.

"It means a lot; it's pretty exciting [to advance]," forward Stephen Hill '08 said. "I was a little nervous before [the Bowdoin game] started; not that we wouldn't win, but I had the jitters because I knew we really wanted to get past where we were last [season]. We really wanted to do well, and I think that helped us focus."

In last Saturday's win, guard Joe Coppens '08 buried a three-pointer right before the half to give the Judges a 35-22 lead over Bowdoin. The Polar Bears responded with a 16-2 run to start the second half and took a 38-37 lead with 13 minutes left in regulation. The Judges missed all 10 of their field goal attempts during that stretch.

"[Brandeis] is a very, very good team, and we had to work extremely hard after getting in a hole like that to try to get ourselves back into the game," Bowdoin head coach Tim Gilbride told reporters after the game. "You knew at some point it would stop and [Brandeis] would probably … get things going again."

Two free throws from reserve guard Florian Rexhepi '08 allowed Brandeis to regain the lead, and over the next 1 minute, 15 seconds, reserve forward Rich Magee '10 changed the momentum with four points, two steals and one block.

Magee first intercepted Bowdoin senior guard Andrew Hippert's pass, and forward Terrell Hollins '09 fed him for a layup to increase the lead to three. On Bowdoin's next possession, Magee again stole the ball from Hippert in the backcourt and finished with an uncontested layup. Finally, after a Bowdoin timeout, Magee blocked Bowdoin senior forward Jordan Fliegel's layup attempt.

Continued...

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