#20 NYU Storms Past Brandeis on Senior Day

McEntee's 27 Points, 17 Rebounds Spark 62-49 Comeback Victory

The Class of 2009, from left: Jessica McEntee, Gena Brown, Megan Fox, Chelsea Seabron and Sarah McDevitt.

Jessica McEntee put on another brilliant performance in perhaps her final home game at the Jerome S. Coles Sports Center, finishing with 27 points and 17 rebounds on Senior Day as New York University downed Brandeis University, 62-49, Saturday afternoon in New York.

Playing before a crowd of 1,782 on a day she was honored along with teammates Gena Brown, Megan Fox, Sarah McDevitt and Chelsea Seabron, McEntee earned her 48th career double-double and ignited a game-shifting surge spanning both halves that enabled the Violets (21-4, 10-4 UAA), ranked #20 in both the D3Hoops.com and USA Today ESPN Division III Coaches' polls, to further strengthen their chances of landing of an at-large invitation to the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championships.

McEntee finished 7-for-14 from the floor, 3-for-5 from three-point range, 10-for-12 from the charity stripe, dished out three assists, blocked two shots and added an assist in 35 minutes of action.

Ranked #25 by D3Hoops.com, Brandeis (17-7, 7-7 UAA) jumped out to a 25-12 lead with 5:48 left in the first half thanks to the standout play of Jessica Chapin (11 points, 17 boards, 3 steals in 40 minutes). From there, the Violets flipped the switch for a stunning reversal of fortune, scoring the next 20 points while holding the Judges scoreless for a stretch of 10:11 to seize a 32-25 lead with 17:04 remaining.

The Judges finally snapped their scoreless skid on a basket by Diana Cincotta (10 points) with 15:29 remaining.

“Getting stops. That's always the first part of the deal,” NYU interim head coach Stefano Trompeo said. “You always go one stop at a time, then a good offensive possession.”

McEntee ignited the 20-0 burst with eight points, including a three-pointer 16 seconds into the second half that gave the Violets their first lead at 26-25. Brandeis never climbed any closer than three points the rest of the way as the quartet of Brown (6 points, 2 3-pointers), McDevitt (1 trey), Jen Hum-Traverso (6 points, 3 assists), and Grace Carmen (9 points) converted timely shots in a game where NYU shot just 33.3% (19-for-57), including just 21.4% (6-for-28) in the first half.

“Clearly Jess had a tremendous game scoring-wise and rebounding-wise,” Trompeo observed. “But then there was Sarah's three, Gena's threes, Jen's three – they're doing everything to stop Jess, but that's the whole team concept we've been talking about all season.”

At game's end, Trompeo put all five of his seniors on the floor as time wound down. During a NYU possession, he called a timeout to substitute in his underclassmen as the crowd cheered in approval.

“It's what you expect and anticipate when you have a class this large in Division III,” said Trompeo, who was an assistant coach for five years prior to this season. “They've been through the highs and lows, they've been to the Final Four. It's their job to be seniors and execute when the team needs it. And they did that.”