From Brandeis University Athletics

The Brandeis University men's basketball was led by sophomore Jordan Cooper (Weston, Fla./Sagemont School), who scored a career-high 35 points, as the Judges defeated visiting Carnegie Mellon University, 81-67, in a University Athletic Association (UAA) contest in Red Auerbach Arena today.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The first half featured two ties and seven lead changes, all in the first half.
• CMU opened up an early five-point lead, but the Judges stayed close, and were within one at 22-21 on a Cooper bucket at the 5:38 mark.
• The Tartans built their biggest lead of the game on a three-point play by Jack Serbin and a 3-pointer by James Ormond that made it 28-21 just 1:02 later.
• Brandeis scored six in a row of their own, four by junior Tim Reale (Mason, Ohio/St. Andrews School, R.I.), including a steal and lay-up that got it back within 28-27.
• After Carnegie Mellon's Ryan Maha and Brandeis's Carlin Haymon (Boston, Mass./Rivers School) traded 3-pointers, Serbin hit four foul shots in a row to put CMU ahead, 35-30 with 1:38 before the break.
• Cooper answered with a lay-up and two freebies before Haymon connected on a jumper from the elbow with five seconds left to give Brandeis a 36-35 lead at the break.
• Brandeis opened the second half with an 11-2 run over the first four minutes and the Judges never looked back.
• They hit seven of their first eight shots after the break and 14 of their first 16 to build a 23-point lead at 72-49 with 6:49 to go.
• CMU was able to get a big chunk of it back on their next possession, when a skirmish on a tied-up rebound led to a slew of technical fouls. The Tartans ended up with six foul shots – converting five – and then hit a 3-pointer on their ensuing possession to get the deficit quickly down to 15.
• Brandeis was able to keep the lead in double figures the rest of the way en route to a split of the UAA weekend.

JORDAN COOPER'S BIG DAY

• Cooper's game- and career-high 35 points came on 11-of-18 from the field, 3-of-7 from downtown and 10-of-12 from the line.
• He scored 15 in the first half (5-10 FG, 1-3 3FG, 4-6 FT) and 20 in the second (6-8 FG, 2-4 3FG, 6-6 FT).
• The 35 points eclipsed his previous career-best of 28, set on Jan. 6, 2015, at Bates College.
• It was Brandeis's first 30-point performance since January 26, 2014 by Gabriel Moton '14, and the most points scored by a Judge since Vytas Kriskus '12 scored 35 against Curry on November 20, 2010.

THE REST OF THE JUDGES

• Junior Robinson Vilmont (Cambridge, Mass./Wilbraham and Monson) added 12 points and a team-high three assists.
• Junior center John Powell (Ashland, Mass./Brimmer and May School) had a team-high seven rebounds in just 14 minutes.
• Brandeis shot a season-high 57.7% (30-52), thanks to a torrid second half, when they hit 77.3%, missing just five shots from the floor (17-22).

FOR CARNEGIE MELLON

• The Tartans were led by a double-double performance from Serbin, who scored 19 points and pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds.
• Patrick Ehland had 15 points off the bench and James Ormond added 11 points in 20 minutes in reserve.
• Ehland also had eight rebounds – six on the offensive glass.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Brandeis won the turnover battle, 17-10, and outscored the Tartans, 21-4, in points off those miscues.
• CMU turned 15 offensive rebounds into 21 second-chance points.

TEAM RECORDS

• Brandeis evens their record at 9-9 and improves to 3-4 in the UAA, in fifth place at the midway point of the conference season.
• The win was the 198^th at Brandeis for head coach Brian Meehan, second on the Judges' career list behind Bob Brannum's 204 wins.
• CMU falls to 8-10, 1-6 in the UAA, in eighth place in the league.