With just over five minutes left in the men's basketball team's game at Carnegie Mellon University Sunday, the Tartans had pulled within 4 points after senior forward Jon Wolleben stole the ball from Brandeis forward Terrell Hollins '10 and junior forward Matthew Pettit converted the turnover into a layup. But Hollins responded with a jumper in the paint to put the Judges back up by 6.

"We started playing man-to- man defense [with about five minutes left]," Hollins said. "We couldn't really do it the whole game because we're a man down and our rotation's already slim as we speak, so we had to play a little bit of 3-2 zone, but we started executing on offense, we hit pretty good shots, and the defense fuels our offense."

Hollins' basket was the start of a 15-0 run by Brandeis to end the game as they defeated Carnegie Mellon 62-43.

The win improves the Judges' record to 15-4 (6-3 in the University Athletic Association play) after a tough 63-61 loss at Case Western Reserve University Friday night.

The win was the 76th for the Judges' five seniors: Hollins, fellow forward Rich Magee '10 and guards Andre Roberson '10, John Weldon '10 and Kenny Small '10. They now have most wins of any senior class in Brandeis history.

"Last year we'd seen that senior class, they were the winningest, so going into the season we knew we needed 14 or 15 wins or so [to break the record], so we felt like we could probably do it," Hollins added. "We were part of some great teams coming in too, and they kind of showed us the way and how to win."

Magee did not get to experience the record-breaking performance in person, however, as he did not make the weekend road trip after being injured in the Judges' Jan. 29 game against Case.

Coach Brian Meehan believes Magee will play tonight against Amherst College.

Both teams struggled shooting in the first half, with the Judges shooting 37.9 percent from the field and the Tartans hitting just 31 percent of their shots.

Carnegie had a 9-6 lead with 13 minutes, 36 seconds left in the half after a three pointer by senior guard Jack Anderson, but consecutive 2-pointers from guard Tyrone Hughes '12 and forward Christian Yemga '11 gave the Judges a lead they would not relinquish. They led by as much as 8 in the first half before going into halftime up 29-22.

But the Tartans would not go away, pulling back within three with 16:18 left and again with 9:05 left in the game. Only the Judges' run at the end put them out of reach.

Hollins had his sixth consecutive double-double and ninth of the season with 17 points and a career-high 19 rebounds, with 13 of his points coming in the second half. Small, forward Vytas Kriskus '12 and Hughes also scored in double figures with 12, 11 and 10 points respectively.

On Friday night, the Judges lost to Case 63-61, despite the fact that Brandeis had defeated Case 70-52 Jan. 29. The game went back and forth in the first half with the Spartans closing the half on a 12-5 run to take a 35-29 lead at the break.

Case stretched the lead to 12 points with 12:20 remaining and led 52-42 with 9:34 left before Brandeis climbed back into it.

A layup from Kriskus pulled the Judges within three with 3:33 left and they never trailed by more than four the rest of the way.

Despite pulling within one point on three separate occasions the Judges were unable to complete the comeback.

The closest they got was with 22 seconds left, when Roberson missed the second of his two free throws and Hollins grabbed the rebound. Small went for a jumper that would have given the Judges the lead, but it was off the mark.

Case then grabbed the rebound and created a fast break layup to increase the lead to 3 points with 11 seconds left. Hughes was then fouled on the other end and hit both his free throws to pull the Judges back within 1.

But after Case senior guard Bryan Erce hit one of two free-throws, Roberson's desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer was wide.

"Against Case, we came out flat, and I think we underestimated them for the most part, and we paid the price of losing the game, a game we needed in the league to win," Hollins said.

Next week, the Judges return home for a three-game stand, starting with a game tonight against Amherst College at 7 p.m., followed by a game against No. 3 Washington University in St. Louis Friday at 8 p.m. They then play UAA foe University of Chicago on Sunday at noon.

Meehan wants his team to focus on one game at a time and play its own style of play.

"We're just going to focus on what we do and try to get better," he said.