The fifth-ranked Case Western Reserve University men's basketball team held off an upset-minded Brandeis University squad, overcoming a 14-point second-half deficit to defeat the Judges 77-76 at Horsburgh Gymnasium in Cleveland on Sunday afternoon.

The Spartans improved to 13-1 on the season overall and to 2-1 in University Athletic Association games with the win, while the Judges dropped to 10-4 with a 1-2 league mark with the loss.

Graduate student guard Anthony Mazzeo scored 26 points to lead all Spartan players, shooting seven-of-15 overall, two-of-six from three-point range, and 10-of-14 from the free throw line. He also dished out a career-high eight assists and collected two rebounds and a pair of steals. Senior forward Iam Elam came off the bench to score 13 points with seven rebounds and three assists, and junior forward Umar Rashid added 11 points, nine rebounds, and three blocks.

The Spartans started slow on Sunday, missing their first 10 three-point attempts, and Brandeis connected on 12 of their first 17 shots overall, as CWRU fell behind by 14, 27-13, with just 8:53 left in the first half. The Spartans used a 6-0 run to cut the Judges lead down to seven, 30-23, with 5:49 left after a turnaround jumper by junior guard Sam Trunley, but Brandeis was able to increase its lead back to double digits by halftime, going ahead 42-31 by the break.

Brandeis led by as many as 14 points in the early part of the second half, 47-33, but the Spartans' offense began to heat up, going on a 17-7 run and cutting the Judges advantage to just four points, 54-50, with 12:43 left in the game. The Spartans pulled back within two on a three-pointer by Rashid with 9:05 remaining and then took their first lead since the 16:25 mark in the first half on a three by graduate student guard Preston Maccoux that made the score 61-60 with 7:21 remaining.

CWRU went on to lead by as many as seven points down the stretch of the game, going ahead 69-62 with 4:39 left in the game after a layup by Mazzeo, but the Judges trimmed the lead back to a point with 2:29 left. An offensive rebound and layup by Elam and a pair of Mazzeo free throws expanded the CWRU lead back to five points with 1:12 left on the clock, but an and-one and a free throw off a technical foul allowed the Judges to cut the lead back to a point again, 77-76, with 53 seconds to play. The Spartans were unable to score on their following possession, giving Brandeis the ball back with 19 seconds left with a chance to win the game with a basket. However, Trunley blocked a shot attempt with five seconds left and despite a pair of offensive rebounds on last-second shot attempts, the Judges could not find the bottom of the basket, allowing CWRU to hold on for the win.

After the slow shooting start to the game, the Spartans heated up in the second half, shooting 60.7% from the floor and 60.0% from three-point range over the final 20 minutes of the game, and finished the contest shooting 48.3% overall and 31.8% from long range.

CWRU will be back on the road next weekend, traveling to Atlanta to face #23 Emory University on Friday night and to Rochester, N.Y. to take on the University of Rochester on Sunday afternoon.