Malta falls to Glasgow in 2B chipper; To open Northern B against Shelby in Shelby

The Malta Mustangs punched their ticket to the Northern B Divisional Tournament in Shelby on March 5 after defeating Harlem in a close 39-35 victory last Friday in their semi-final game in the 2B District Tournament in Wolf Point.

Malta would lose the 2B District Championship to the Glasgow Scotties the next day. The score was 53-43.

In their win against Harlem, Malta was led by Nate Costin, who had 10 points. Costin hit two treys in the game.

Jase Galt had eight points and seven rebounds in the win.

Allen Williamson also had eight points and recorded five rebounds.

Jeremy Costin had seven points. Tyson Carney and Jayce Bishop had three points a piece.

Both teams shot poor from the field. Malta was 13 of 41 (31 percent) and Harlem was 14 of 49 (31 percent).

The major difference in the game was the fact Harlem only got to the free throw line for four shots and only hit two shots.

"Friday night against Harlem, we were a little impatient," Malta Head Coach David Costin said. "We took some questionable, early shots."

Malta went to the line for 15 attempts and scored on 10 of those attempts.

In their loss to Glasgow Malta was led by Allen Williamson, who scored 16 points. He scored 12 of Malta's 15 first half points. He also had four rebounds.

Jeremy Costin had 12 points. He hit two treys in the game.

"Jeremy shot the ball well tonight," Coach Costin said. "Our problem with him is we cannot get him to take enough shots. He's willing to pass up shots to be patient and run up offense but he needs to be a little more selfish."

Nate Costin had 11 points. He hit three treys.

Galt and Carney added two points a piece.

Though Malta did a fair job defending Glasgow's post and forwards, it's clear that they don't have a solid post player on their side, which hurt the team in the paint.

"I'm happy with our team defensively, for the most part," Coach Costin said. "We had some mental mistakes and gave up some easy baskets, I think that's where Glasgow made their run on us."

Both teams hit roughly 40 percent of their shots from the field, however Glasgow reached the charity stripe for 18 attempts, while Malta only had nine attempts. Malta hit eight of those attempts (88 percent).

"Against Glasgow (shooting) we did a much better job (of being patient), especially in the first half. We got a lot of easy looks." Coach Costin said.

He mentioned that an experienced team like Glasgow doesn't make mistakes.

"We made a handful of mental mistakes at crucial times, where they didn't and they took advantage of that," Coach Costin said. "Overall we played hard. We had a lot of good moments here Saturday."

Glasgow also proved they had a strong and patient keep away game, nearly lulling the crowd to sleep in the last two minutes of each quarter.

If it were a wrestling match, the tactic would be called stalling.

The tactic worked as Glasgow was able to score in the remaining seconds, while holding onto the ball for nearly 1:30 seconds before the second and third quarter buzzers.

If Malta hopes to punch their ticket to state, the team will need to establish dominance in the paint and sink their high percentage shot attempts.

The Mustangs are slated to go against 1B's Shelby Coyotes in the first round of the Northern B Divisional in Shelby, Thursday, March 5.

More information about the Boys Northern B in next week's issue of the Phillips County News.