Malden: By halftime, Malden coach Don Nally was starting to run out of ideas on how to motivate his team.  He had already began the game by benching his usual starting five for five bench players because of his teams' poor preparation leading up to the Belmont game.  He then watched his team struggle through a lethargic first half against the winless team and trail 32-31. Nally decided that it was no longer time to discuss strategy or shakeup lineups, instead he challenged his players' hearts.

"He challenged us as a team to dig deeper and challenge them and he challenged me individually as well." senior point guard Wily Metellus said after the game.

The message was heard loud and clear by the Tornadoes.  Metellus and his mates increased the tempo and pressured Belmont into 12 3rd quarter turnovers.  Sophomore forward Anthony Gilardi led the way with 18 of his game high 28 points in the quarter as Malden out scored the Marauders 32-10 to take control of the game, 63-42.

"I think Coach's halftime speech really pushed us." Gilardi said in the winning locker room. "Our press picked up and we got a lot of easy baskets."

Most of the easy baskets came courtesy of Gilardi (28 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists and 6 steals), senior forward Jason Surpris (14 points, 9 rebounds) and senior forward Michael Asfawa (12 points, 4 rebounds).  Malden pounded the paint in the second half, exposing Belmont's lack of depth and size en route to their 4th win in 5 games.

Malden has to hope they can find their energy much sooner in the game next week when they travel to Somerville on Tuesday and then Everett on Friday night to kick off their league schedule.