Welcome back

As a reminder, we don’t have an issue this week, thanks to the Thanksgiving break. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves, even though the football games were incredibly boring.

But while it was a good Thanksgiving weekend for most, it wasn’t for the women’s basketball team. They lost their second game of the young season, shooting just 21 percent from the field in a 57-43 loss at Tufts last Sunday. Jaime Capra ‘08 continues to struggle, as she shot 3-12 from the field in scoring just 10 points. For the season, she’s shooting only 30.8 percent from the field and 57 percent from the line.

It was almost a bad weekend for the men’s team as well, but a late rally propelled them to an 89-87 win at Tufts last Sunday. Kwame Graves-Fulgham ‘08 led the way with 23 points, and Terrell Hollins ‘10 and Andre Roberson ‘10 added 21 and 17, respectively for the Judges, who continue to play without Steve DeLuca ‘08. Jeff reported last week that DeLuca was struggling with hamstring and back injuries that resulted from his recovery from a plantar fascitis injury suffered last summer, but DeLuca had told us before the Thanksgiving break that he hoped to play in the Tufts game. We’ll update accordingly.

Speaking of injuries, there was a critical one around the UAA this weekend. Sean Wallis, the star junior point guard for Wash U. and the brand new blogger for D3hoops.com, is likely out for the rest of the season with a devastating knee injury. Here’s what he had to say in the Daily Dose at D3hoops.com:

First things first: As a lot people already know and have been speculating, I got injured in our game last Tuesday at Maryville. I currently have a displaced tibial plateau fracture and a partially torn MCL. Winning by 20 points midway through the first half, I drove down the lane and Cam’s [Smith] man stepped over to help onto me. His defender accidentally stepped on my right foot then the rest of his leg crashed into my leg. Since he was on my foot—my leg had no way to give at the contact so it kind of just snapped and I heard a crack.

Without Wallis, the Bears, who began the season as the top-ranked team in the D3hoops.com poll, lost their second game of the year, falling 66-60 to No. 5 Augustana last Saturday. Obviously, Wallis’ injury is terrible news, and I hope he gets better, but that significantly weakens one of Brandeis’ top competitors in the UAA this season. The Judges need to first get their star back, but the good news is that, even with star center Troy Ruths, fantastic swingman Tyler Nading, and forward Aaron Thompson, the Bears look a lot less imposing.