The Justice

Media Credit: David Sheppard-Brick Cassidy Dadaos '09 tries to shoot in the paint last Saturday.

AMHERST, Mass.-Captain Cassidy Dadaos '09 was still leading the women's basketball team, even after the Judges' 68-54 loss to Amherst College in the Sectional Finals of the Division III NCAA Tournament last Saturday. Her career was now over, but even so, Dadaos was the first player to leave the court and enter the Judges' locker room, with all of her teammates following behind.

Dadaos, who said she was playing each NCAA Tournament game with the hopes of prolonging her basketball career, played some of her best games in her four years at Brandeis during this year's tournament run. In the loss to Amherst, she finished the game with 13 points as well as a career-high 11 rebounds, her second career double-double.

Despite averaging no more than seven points per game in any season of her four-year career, Dadaos was given the ball on most of the team's possessions as if she were the Judges' primary scorer inside. In last Friday's 82-70 victory over Muhlenberg College in the Sweet 16, Dadaos tied a career-high in points with 14 to go along with a team-high seven rebounds.

Though Dadaos was able put up some of her best numbers in the two biggest games of her career, she said she has always taken pride in doing the intangibles to help her team win.

"I'm not a big scorer, I've never been a big scorer," she said after Friday's win. "But I want to be able to do the smaller things and the defensive stops and the rebounding and know the plays and be vocal on the court."

Dadaos, who also served as a team captain during her junior year, has earned the respect and praise of teammates and coaches. Amber Strodthoff '11, a forward whom the Judges will lean on heavily next year with Dadaos graduating, said that Dadaos has been a huge aide in her transition to college basketball and has helped her mature as a player.

"Those are big shoes to fill, let me just start off by saying that," she said after the team's loss to Amherst. "The things she does for all of us on and off the court are just incredible. … In practice, she plays me hard with everything she's got, and she's constantly in my ear telling me what I did great, what I did bad, and just trying to get the best player out of me. Off the court, she's just someone you can always go and talk to with anything; she'll do anything for you. Her heart and soul was this team and all of the girls on it."

Continued...

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