Our House!

The Malta Mustangs backed up their perfect 8-0 conference record last weekend by winning the 2017 District 2B Tournament Championship in Malta last Saturday against Glasgow. The score was 67-27.

The team was led in their championship win by Nate Costin who had 21 points and spearheaded a 20-0 run that started in the first quarter and ended in the second quarter.

"It's always kind of a feeling out period in the first three or four minutes," Mustangs Head Coach David Costin told the PCN. "I think what really got us this win was that we played some tremendous defense."

Taylor Matthews had 10 points in the win and Blake Sjostrom scored seven.

"We were just working hard and playing solid defense and most of the time we were having fun," N. Costin said.

Malta won the battle of the boards, out-rebounding the Scotties 34-18. Malta also outscored Glasgow 28-6 in the paint.

Ostin Welch was tasked with defending Cade Myrick, who was Glasgow's biggest threat.

"I think Ostin, on Myrick, their best player did a fantastic job," Coach Costin said. "Everybody did. We defended and rebounded well. That allowed us to have a slow start offensively and once we got into a better flow, we did well with the offense. We went nine deep and everybody contributed."

Welch expanded on why Myrick is a scoring threat.

"He's just an all-around good player," Welch said. "He is a really good player that is tough to shut down. The best thing to do is just not let him touch the ball."

Due to having the best record against 2B opponents in the regular season, Malta faced Harlem who won their play-in game against Wolf Point on Thursday night.

In the team's 51-21 win over Harlem, Malta went on a 22-0 run and led by as much as 33 points.

Malta was led by Matthews, who scored a game-high 17 points. N. Costin and Welch both had eight points and Jace Bishop added seven points.

"It felt like our defense really put some pressure on them," Bishop said. "In the second half we really started to drive up the middle and get some good shots on them."

Initially Malta knocked down their first three shots in the paint, but then both defenses shut out their opposition in the paint even during fast break opportunities.

"It was kind of a slow start," Sjostrom said. "But once we started to penetrate the zone, it opened things up for us. We got better looks and we started making shots and it just worked out for us as we went along."

Before the game against Glasgow, Bishop knew that Malta would work harder to set the pace of the game so the game would not be as close as it was the last time these two met in February.

"Tomorrow you're probably going to see us get a lot more intense than we were last time," Bishop said. "We are going to be mad that we didn't win by more and we're going to come out firing."

Going into the 2B tournament, Malta knew that every team they faced would try to spoil their chances of winning.

"We just knew we had to play our game," N. Costin said. "We knew we were the best in the conference and we proved that. We knew that if we played our game we would win. We just took it at them."

The Mustangs will square off against the Choteau Bulldogs in their opening game at the Northern B Divisional in Cut Bank on Thursday, March 2.

"No matter who you play, it's going to be a dog fight because there are four very good teams from over there coming into divisionals," Coach Costin said. "If we can play with this intensity and mental focus, I think we are as good as anybody over there and I think we have a good shot."