Although they quickly bounced back, the damage was done. The women's basketball team defeated then UAA leading University of Chicago 84-76 on Sunday, only two days after being demolished in their worst game of the season, a 70-40 thrashing at the hands of Washington University on Friday. The Judges fell in the D3hoops.com rankings for the second consecutive week and are now No. 14 in the country.

It was the second straight loss of the season for the Judges on Friday, and while they regrouped to beat Chicago, the team looked lackadaisical against Washington, shooting a season-low 19.2 percent from the field while several players said the team didn't come with enough intensity. With two losses in the UAA after a 14-0 start, the pressure is on the Judges to win the rest of their conference games in order to earn a berth to the N.C.A.A. tournament.

"The effort's there," Caitlin Malcolm '07 said. "Every team has their time when things don't go right, and right now things aren't going right, so what we have to do is get into the gym and work harder."

"I don't think we came ready to play," captain Catherine Brady '05 said. "I don't really know what's going on. I just think the competition is getting better and we're not responding."

The Judges did respond to their excruciating loss, forcing 21 turnovers and holding off the visiting University of Chicago Maroons for a eight-point win on Sunday. The Judges were out-rebounded 43-32 and allowed the Maroons to shoot 46.2 percent from the field, but Jaime Capra '08 had a sensational game-high 24 points and single-handedly kept the Judges alive from the field by hitting 10 of 15 field goals, including three of four from three-point range.

Caitlin Malcolm '07 chipped in with 16 points and seven rebounds while Christine Clancy '06 had 15 points and six rebounds. Brady had 11 points, but shot only 1-7 from three-point range.

The game saw the Judges start to snap out of a recent shooting slump, something coach Carol Simon was relieved to see.

"They played really hard, the effort was outstanding," she said. "It was nice to see that we could score again."

"We had a lot to prove today," Christine Clancy '06 said. "We haven't been playing that great and we wanted to come out really intense on our defense."

"This was a great win for us," captain Emily Malkin '05 said. "I thought our intensity picked up as we went along."

Though the eight-point win over Chicago will help restore the Judges' confidence, the embarassment against Washington University will not be easily forgotten. It was a disastrous start against the Bears, as Brandeis quickly fell into an insurmountable deficit.

Senior guard Kelly Manning led the Bears with 18 points and nine rebounds while senior forward Hallie Hutchens helped out with 17 points and seven boards.

"We tried to execute," Manning said. "We watched a lot of film on them."

"Brandeis has played extremely well, so that was our motivation," Bears' coach Nancy Fahey said. "It was a challenge."

Trailing 5-4 less than three minutes into the game, the Bears' pulled off a 17-0 run and led 21-5 with just over eight minutes left in the first half. The Judges missed 12 shots and had four turnovers during that stretch, and finished with only four field goals in the first half.

"You've got to hit shots," Simon said. "Kids have to get in the gym and shoot. I can't put the ball in the hole for them."

"We didn't come to play," Caitlin Malcolm said. "They did."

The Judges never seemed to recover from Washington's opening onslaught, still only shooting 24 percent in the second half. The Bears did not gain any ground in the first 10 minutes of the second half, but went on to build the lead to as much as 32 points in the closing minutes.

The Washington bench exploded with less than three minutes left as sophomore guard Nicky Huels completed a three-point play on a fast-break layup and a foul by Alison Chase '07, extending the lead to 30 points.

With the Bears celebrating on the sidelines, Simon said to the Brandeis bench, "I want you to remember them cheering."

"You've got to remember when a team is whipping your butt," Simon explained later. "You've got to remember them cheering. You can't forget it. Wash. U. is a good team. They executed, bottom line."

Capra was the only double-digit scorer for the Judges, with 11 points. Malcolm chipped in with nine points and Brady had eight, but no other Brandeis players had more than four.

The Judges are in a difficult situation if they want to maintain position to make the N.C.A.A. tournament. Five of their last seven games are on the road and all are against conference opponents. The Judges still have to play nationally-ranked New York University as well as the Bears again, both on the road.

The Judges finished 22-5 last season and missed out on the N.C.A.A. tournament, although they did go on to win the ECAC New England championship. While one loss likely would not crush the team's tournament hopes, two more losses in the UAA would make it difficult to win the conference and an automatic berth to the N.C.A.A. tournament. Simon insists she is not focused on the tournament, but on fixing the problems the team is having with shooting and defense.

"[The tournament]'s not my concern right now," Simon said. "You take care of each game and then the results happen."

The coming stretch continues to bear a striking resemblance to the one that derailed the Judges' tournament hopes last season. Brandeis travels to play Chicago again Friday before heading to St. Louis on Sunday to avenge the thrashing the Bears gave them. A road trip last season saw the newly-ranked Judges drop two games to the same teams, taking them out of the tournament picture.

While this team arguably has already proved to be a better team than last season's ECAC champions, veterans still remember their two biggest losses of last season.

"All the returning players remember [that weekend]," Clancy said.

The Judges can take the UAA lead with a win over Chicago, but the game against the Bears will test if the Judges can learn from this weekend's mistakes. Manning knows to expect a more determined Brandeis team.

"I think they're gonna be fired up, and they're gonna know us better," she said. "I expect a totally different game."

-Staff writer Julie Scherr

contributed to this article.