In the biggest upset since the 1980 Miracle on Ice, the Brandeis University faculty/staff team defeated the student team 37-31 at the Hoops for Haiti fundraiser Thursday night. The game was close early on, but the turning point came at the end of the first half, when the faculty/staff team scored 5 straight points to turn a 9-8 deficit into a 13-9 halftime lead.

They would never trail again the rest of the way, leading by as many as 11 points late in the second half. The student team then made a late run to get close but ultimately could not defeat the unstoppable faculty team.

The win was a shock, since the faculty/staff team was going up against a student team of all-stars, including former Student Union President Jason Gray '10, current president Andy Hogan '11, President-elect Daniel Acheampong '11 and five members of the men's and women's varsity basketball teams.

The student team was also coached by men's basketball forward Christian Yemga '11. In Yemga's defense, he was coaching by himself, rather than with an assistant as Jacob Cohen (AMST), coach of the faculty/staff team, did.

From Cohen's comments afterward, however, it seems that he did not take full advantage of his help on the sidelines.

"We had two coaches? Was there another coach besides me? . [Director of Hiatt Services Joe DuPont] was going to be the new head coach, and then they demoted him and they gave him to me," Cohen added.

The victory was even more remarkable after Assistant Dean of Student Life Jamele Adams appeared to suffer a devastating knee injury early in the first half.

Cohen then took a major risk and picked a completely random audience member to replace Adams in the game.

Little did he know this random audience member was men's assistant basketball coach Eric McKoy, himself a former Division III varsity basketball player at Salem State College under men's basketball coach Brian Meehan.

But in the end, the faculty/staff team did not even need him, as Adams, in a performance reminiscent of Willis Reed in Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals, returned to the court a few minutes later and played the rest of the game.

Cohen commented on what he thought about the severity of Adams' injury.

"[Adams] was really hurt," Cohen said. "I was worried. I thought he was going to have to stop talking, and that would have been an absolute tragedy."

Indeed, Adams contributed not only with his play but also with his mouth. When he was not on the court (and often when he was), he spent his time both trash-talking the opposing team and giving coaching advice to Cohen.

This was heard by the entire gymnasium because the organizers chose to put a microphone on Adams for the entire game.

Much of Adams' chatter included pleas for Cohen to remove Community Development Coordinator Michael Vella from the game when he kept missing shots.

Cohen, however, stuck to his guns and was rewarded at the end when Vella hit two key 2-point shots to help his team pull away.

"I think the students thought that miking me up would take away from the skills of my fellow teammates," Adams said. "What they failed to realize is that we oftentimes practice with the Boston Celtics and the New York Yankees. At the same time, it's a little-known fact that the New York Yankees play basketball too. . [Vella] kept missing, and so we had to figure out a way to motivate him to make some shots, and so [talking] was my way. The discipline has to come from within; it shouldn't be from outside in. We're all in this together."

The game also featured raffle giveaways during timeouts, including Red Sox tickets, "Hoops for Haiti" T-shirts and the best prize of all, a ride on University President Jehuda Reinharz's Vespa scooter.

Despite featuring the worst offensive performance since the first half of the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship game earlier this month, the event still raised enough money to put the total fundraising amount for the Brandeis Haiti Relief Effort above $15,000. The Brandeis Haiti Relief Effort is now just $10,000 away from its goal of raising $25,000 for Haiti by the end of the academic year.

Before the game it was also announced that the old furniture from the Charles River Apartments that will be renovated this summer will be donated to Haiti relief efforts.

"We were thrilled," Nate Rosenblum '10, one of the event's organizers, said. "We had so much fun; everybody seemed like they were having a great time. We had over 200 people. . We were just absolutely thrilled with the support here at Brandeis from students, staff, everybody that came out, all the volunteers. It was amazing.