On To State!!!

The Malta Mustangs have made it to the State B Tournament for the first time since the 2013-14 season in which they were able to place third.

The Mustangs were able to punch their ticket by defeating the Choteau Bulldogs 77-71 in the Consolation Finals of the Northern B Divisional last Saturday in Cut Bank. In doing so, the Mustangs spoiled the chances of the Bulldogs repeating as state champions.

“I’m on cloud nine right now,” senior guard Nate Costin said after the game. “There are so many emotions going on. We worked our butts off for three years to get here. I am so proud of the boys.”

Knowing that he could possibly see the last few games of his high school career, Costin responded.

“When we lost to Cut Bank, it was just a flashback,” Costin said. “My last two years, it’s been the same situation and I thought, it’s my team, I’m not letting my boys do it. We are winning. We are getting there.”

Having had close losses to Choteau in previous Northern B matches, Costin felt even more motivation.

“It feels great, it feels good,” Costin said. “We’ve got a little bit of history and it just feels awesome.”

The Mustangs will open the 2017 State B Tournament against the Lame Deer Morning Stars, who won the Southern B by defeating the Lodge Grass Indians 69-54 in the championship last Saturday. Malta’s game against Lame Deer is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Thursday.

On the same side of the bracket will be a match of second seed teams as Cut Bank, the team that defeated Malta in the Northern B Semi-finals will open up against Loyola-Sacred Heart

“The main thing is that we made the trip,” Mustangs Head Coach David Costin said. “We’ve got the same shot as anybody else now. As hard and as well as we played, I think we will compete and have just as good of a shot.”

In last year’s Northern B Malta fell to Shelby in consolation and in 2015 the Mustangs challenged Rocky Boy for a spot in the state tournament but ultimately lost. This will be the first state tournament for many of the Mustangs, including Taylor Matthews, who led Malta with a 17 point, 14 rebound double-double in their win over Choteau.

“I’m pretty jacked,” Matthews said. “I’m really excited. I’ve never been to State and I’m excited to experience it.”

Ostin Welch tied the team lead in points, with 17 points, which included four treys. He was a catalyst in a game where Malta tied their highest offensive output of the year.

“It feels great to just come down, shoot it and know it’s going in,” Welch said. “It’s awesome.”

“It feels great, I’m so excited, this had been one of my biggest goals – to make it to State and now I’m here and I get to go and it’s awesome,” Welch said.

Costin had 14 points and seven rebounds.

Sawyer Patton and Darrien Garcia led the Wolves, putting on a shooting clinic while scoring 32 and 30 respectively.

“That’s a typical night for Garcia and Patton,” Coach Costin said. “I think we had surprised them the first night with our defense. I knew they would be a little more accustomed to it. They were more aggressive, attacking us off the dribble a lot harder this game than they did the first game.”

Though Malta struggled to slow down Patton and Garcia in the first half, the team was able to slow the duo down in the second half, making them force shots and leaving them scoreless from the field in the last two minutes.

“We just played D,” N. Costin said. “We manned up and we played D. They had a lot of points in the first half and we limited them in the second half and that was the key to it.”

Malta showed that they could slow down Choteau, who had defeated Poplar 101-86 earlier in the tournament, and showed that they could win in a high scoring situation.

“We just needed to find our flow and the way that we would click together,” Welch said. “We had to make sure we had good defense and worked for the 50-50 balls that was all really huge. If we come out and do that we will win the game.”

Malta had the team’s largest lead, a nine point difference with nine seconds remaining.

Landon VanWichen also proved to be a scoring threat in the consolation finals win, racking up 12 points, while going 2-for-2 from behind the arc.

“Landon VanWichen knocked some big shots down that he hasn’t all year,” Coach Costin said. “Konner Kuehn knocked a big three down, Jace Bishop knocked a big three down."

Malta started the Northern B Divisional with a 65-48 win over Choteau in the tournament’s opening round.

N. Costin had 22 points, eight rebounds and was 7-of-8 from the charity stripe. Ostin Welch scored 16 points and knocked down three treys and Taylor Matthews had a 15 point, 19 rebound double-double.

The team then fell to Cut Bank in the semi-finals. The score was 63-60.

Malta was led by N. Costin who scored 23 points. Welch scored 14 and had four treys. Taylor Matthews scored 12.

Malta also defeated the Glasgow Scotties 45-31 in the consolation quarter-finals.