The Emory University women's basketball team saw another Friday night win at the Woodpec after defeating the Brandeis Judges 76-50.
The team improves to 16-3 on the year and picks up its sixth conference win of the season. Graduate student Claire Brock led the team with 17 points on the day followed by 10 points from senior Izzy Munson. Junior Morgan Laudick made an impactful comeback scoring eight points and totaling five rebounds while sophomore Lily Kennedy posted six rebounds to tie her career high.
The Judges started the first quarter going toe to toe with the Eagles to tie the game 4-4 with 8:29 on the clock. Back to back jumpers from sophomore Chloe Kreusser and Brock gave Emory an 8-4 advantage before a three pointer from Brock later in the quarter forced the Judges into a timeout. The teams went back and forth to finish out the quarter but the Eagles still held strong with a 20-10 lead heading into the second quarter.
The Eagles opened the second quarter with back to back to back threes to take a 29-10 lead with just under eight minutes in the half. The second quarter was all about layups with two coming from senior Paige Gross and Munson to help Emory to a 39-17 lead at the 3:27 mark. The Judges went on a 6-2 run to finish the quarter but Emory held a 41-23 advantage heading into the locker room.
The third quarter got off to a slow start with Brandeis making an early layup but the Eagles were held scoreless until a layup from Munson with 6:56 remaining on the clock. Five points from freshman Alexandra Loucopoulos gave Emory a 51-28 lead, one of the largest of the night. The Eagles were able to take advantage of fouls from the Judges' defense and score four more points from free throws in the final three minutes of the quarter. A late jumper from freshman Emma Starr put Emory on top 59-36 with one quarter left in the game.
Brandeis scored their most points in the fourth quarter but were still outscored by Emory 17-14. Munson started the quarter with a three pointer followed by another from Starr pushing the Eagles to a 69-44 lead. After a free throw from Loucopoulos at the 5:41 mark, both teams were scoreless until 2:46 was left on the clock. The Judges finished the game on an 8-6 run but the effort wasn't enough and the Eagles took the game.
The Eagles were able to outshoot the Judges in three point percentage going 38.9 percent compared to Brandeis' 15.0 percent. Despite the Judges leading the conference in free throw percentage, Emory outshot Brandeis 76.5 percent to 70.8 percent.
The Eagles will look to Sunday where they will face the No. 1 ranked NYU Violets for the second time this season.