I promise never to call Caitlin Malcolm 07 Malkin like I did with the season preview two weeks ago. Given her play recently, I doubt anyone else would make that mistake as her dominant play, which included a double-double (13 points, 12 rebounds) in little over 15 minutes, helped lead Brandeis to their 83-39 blow-out over the previously undefeated Wheaton Lyons.

Despite the offensive showcase, this was not a performance that the team was particularly proud ofand for good reason. The game opened up with neither side scoring, complete with two straight misses by Christine Clancy 06, before Malcolm single-handedly scored the first eight points of the game. Following a 30-second timeout though, the game bogged down into a struggle of turnovers, fouls, and streaky shooting. Amanda DeMartino 06 had a shaky start, committing five turnovers in the half, but finished with seven assists. A Becky Aitchison lay-up cut Brandeiss lead to four with 7 minutes to go in the half, when the Judges went on a 14-4 run, culminating with strong performances from Jaime Capra 08, who had a three pointer and made both of her foul shots, as well as Courtney Tremblay 08, who added a three with seven seconds remaining. Tremblays three was an exciting basket in an otherwise sleepy game.

I definitely feel that we came out ready to step it up because, obviously, the first half wasnt a great performance all-around and we just came out, really fired up, just playing much better in the second half. We controlled the game, point guard and co-captain DeMartino told me.

The second half was a complete runaway, with Brandeis getting 50 points to Wheatons 20. It was a combination of strong play from the Brandeis reserves and Wheaton simply falling apart during Brandeiss run. Their third leading scorer of the first half Kim McCormack fouled out just seven minutes into the second half. The Lyons committed 12 turnovers and they were absolutely horrific beyond the arc, making only one out of five attempts in the second half, going two of eleven overall. At one point, Wheaton called a time-out when they had none left. Fortunately for Wheaton, Carol Simon was nicer to them than North Carolina was to Chris Webber when he did the same thing in the 1993 NCAA championship by not accepting the technical foul. Aitchison had a good game, scoring 14 points, frequently from cutters through the lanesomething that the Judges were not pleased with.

I actually thought Wheaton played better the second half, Malcolm said. I just think theyre more intense and scrappy and can get into our heads though.

There were some impressive performances though from Brandeis players not named Malcolm. The reserves played so well that for three minutes Coach Simon played a line-up consisting solely of the first-year players (with Amanda Wells 09 and Lauren Orlando 09 swapping) and second-year players Kiersten Holgash 08 and Tremblay. Orlando played superbly after shaking off early jitters, amassing 15 points on 5 of 7 shooting in 13 minutes. The athletic and talented Wells contributed 9 points and 3 rebounds, while Capra had 14 points thanks to strong free throw shooting. As a team, Brandeis was deadly at the free throw line, converting 29 out of 35 shots, including Capras three for three outing on one trip. The Judges were also deadly from three-point land, with Tremblay making 2 of 3 as the team finished 50% for the game.

Coach Simon credited team defense for the strong second half.

I think it was us playing good defense. We had a goal to keep them within 40 points and, it was just our defensive effort.

Dont count on this team resting on its laurels though, not if captain DeMartino has her way.
I guess we picked it up in the second half, but not so great, you know theres a lot of things we have to work on and we really need to start stepping it up as a team together and start playing our best basketball. Our defense, particularly in this game, wasnt up to par, they got a lot of easy shots, boxing out and we need to work on attacking more with the ball. Were a little too passive passing along the perimeter and need to attack the lane.

Brandeis faces off against Babson College on the road on Dec. 3. The players expect this to be a tougher game, as Babson has some size to throw around. Before the game, Brandeis moved up in the rankings from number 7 to number 4 in the latest d3hoops.com poll. Coach Simon explained that it was always nice to have the respect of the coaches but, as she explained, theyre taking it one game at a time.