Three-and-a-half seconds remained in a rematch that turned into a battle for first place in the UAA as the women's basketball team looked to avenge the Washington University team that embarrassed the Judges in a 70-40 rout at home on Jan. 28.Down by one point and with another slide in the national rankings at stake, the Judges turned to star forward Caitlin Malcolm '07, who hit a short jumper with just 3.5 seconds remaining in the game, lifting the Judges to a 59-55 win over Washington University in St. Louis on Sunday. The win followed a 68-62 road victory over the University of Chicago, and gave the Judges sole possession of first place in the UAA conference with a 7-2 record. The Judges are now 17-2 overall and are ranked No. 10 in the new D3hoops.com poll, jumping four spots from last week.

"Coming off last week's loss, it was obviously a big disappointment and [the players] knew that they could play better," Coach Carol Simon said. "They knew that they didn't show what we were made of, so they really had something to prove. They just responded well to the challenge of what happened last week."

Malcolm was stellar with a game-high 21 points, including nine of 12 free-throw attempts. Basia Grzyb '07 was the only other Brandeis player to score in double digits with 14 points, while Christine Clancy '06 added nine. Malcolm and Clancy snatched four rebounds each while Gryzb grabbed three.

"That game was just one of those games that you love being an athlete and love playing in," Jaime Capra '08 said. "It was close the whole time and we were changing leads back and forth. It was just a team effort, one of the best games that we've played together."

"I don't think you can even describe how bad it felt when they slaughtered us by 30," Malcolm said. "It was a great way to come back and just downright beat them."

It was a special week for Malcolm in particular as she made an appearance in Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd," a feature which acknowledges amateur athletes and their accomplishments.

"It was such a shock, it was amazing," Malcolm said. "It's so neat that people are responding to athletics. It means that people will want to come to our games more and see us play."

The Judges traveled to take on the Maroons of the University of Chicago before their tough battle with the Bears. The game was close throughout, but the Judges topped the Maroons for the second straight game, winning 68-62.

The Judges trailed 55-47 with 6:21 remaining in the game, before outscoring the Maroons 21-7 to close out the contest. Allison Chase '07 had 18 points off the bench, while Malcolm and Gryzb each contributed 13 and Capra added 10. Chase also grabbed six rebounds while Gryzb and Capra pulled down five each.

"We had beaten them last weekend so I think we went into the game pretty confident that we were going to beat them again," Capra said. "It was close and we were down at one point but we never really lost our composure and everybody played really well together and we were all very happy with that win."

With both wins last weekend as well as Washington University's 60-57 win over New York University earlier in the weekend, the Judges are now alone in first place in the UAA. Their late-season conference lead puts them in a strong position to compete for the automatic NCAA tournament berth that comes with the conference championship.

However, with five tough UAA games remaining, the Judges must continue to win in order to reach the big tournament.

"I think we play best when we play with a vengeance," Malcolm said. "We can't be nice."

Simon is insistent on taking the season one game at a time.

"Just because we had a good weekend we can't just live on our laurels," Simon said. "We know that with five more games, those are five games we have to win and can't look ahead to any sort of tournament until we get through our regular season."

The Judges look to extend their winning streak as they head to Carnegie Mellon University on Friday and the University of Rochester on Sunday.