After falling just short at home against No. 1 University of Rochester 66-62 in their University Athletic Association opener last Friday night, the No. 5 women's basketball team responded by jumping out to a 10-2 lead less than four minutes into last Sunday's home game against Carnegie Mellon University. But when the Tartans took advantage of two Brandeis turnovers to cut the Judges' lead to 10-8 with 14 minutes, 53 seconds left in the first half, Brandeis coach Carol Simon called a timeout to stabilize the team.

"[Simon] was just telling us to play our game [during the timeout]," guard Jessica Chapin '10 said. "That's the main focus. Sometimes we get into playing the other team's tempo or their style of play, but we got to concentrate on playing our own game, and when we dictate, . we're a pretty good team."

The Judges responded with a 15-2 run to extend their lead to 25-10 with 8:17 left in the first half, propelling the team to a 65-44 victory over the Tartans. The win moves Brandeis' record to 11-1 and 1-1 in the UAA.

"It's important [to get off to a fast start], because you want to dig in right away," Simon said. "You don't want to stay even with teams early; if you can dig in right away and then build your lead obviously it builds confidence with your team."

Guard Carmela Breslin '10 played a key role in the Judges' first half rally, with five of her eight points during the game coming in the 15-2 stretch. She added a steal that led to a layup by point guard Lauren Rashford '10, capping the Brandeis run.

"It's definitely good to get a win under our belt," Breslin said. "Obviously we would have liked to go 2-0 [last weekend] but Rochester and Carnegie Mellon are both good teams, so it was a good weekend for us coming out with the one."

The Judges shot 44 percent from the field while holding Carnegie Mellon to just 25.8 percent shooting. Chapin led the team in scoring with 15 points and tied with forward Cassidy Dadaos '09 for the team lead in rebounds with six.

The win moves the Judges to .500 in the UAA after last Friday night's four-point loss to Rochester, the NCAA's No. 1 team in the d3hoops.com poll. The teams were tied at the half, but Rochester's 16-5 run to open the second half put them ahead 45-34 with just over 15 minutes to play in the game.

"With [Rochester] you can't have any mental lapses, and the first four minutes [of the second half], we didn't come out with the same energy that we had in the whole first half," Simon said.

Brandeis chipped away at the lead, cutting it to 58-56 with 3:42 left in the game but could not get any closer. With 2:50 left, Chapin missed a jumper that would have tied the game at 58. Three possessions later, with Brandeis down three and 57 seconds left to play, Rashford committed a turnover. Chapin would have one more chance to tie the game with Brandeis down 63-60 and 16 seconds remaining, but she missed a three-point shot.

Rochester then hit three of four free throws in the final 10 seconds for the winning margin.

-Over winter break, the Judges finished up their non-conference schedule with a 64-58 win over previously undefeated Regis College Dec. 31 and a 65-44 victory over Rhode Island College Jan. 6.

Brandeis continues play Saturday at home against conference rival New York University at 1 p.m.