Malta Madness!!!

Despite weather conditions and having to change the original date, the Malta Athletic Club's Swishfest featured 51 teams, who played games at Malta High School, the Middle School Gym and Malta's City Hall last Saturday, April 7 through Sunday, April 8.

"It's great," Malta Athletic Club President Jake Stuart said of the event last weekend. "There were big crowds in each gym. So far everybody has been happy and it has been very good."

All of the proceeds from the event go to the Malta Athletic Club, which helps fund athletic events for sports around Phillips County.

"It's one of the biggest fundraisers we do, not in terms of dollars but time spent," Stuart said. "People put in a lot of time to make this tournament happen."

With fifty-one teams present at the event Stuart was more than pleased with the turnout.

"I was expecting thirty-five this year because we had to move our date due to Easter," Stuart said. "Last time we had to do that we cut our teams in half. So, ended up with fifteen more teams than we thought."

The Malta Young Guns fifth grade team would not be denied on their way to their championship win. The Young Guns defeated Poplar pretty handily in their semi-final clash. The score was 52-26.

The Young Guns were led by their "Big Three," which includes Stockton Oxarart, Treyton Wilke, and Bohdi Brenden.

"We just always try to win every game," Oxarart said. "We try to pass the ball around and try to get the ball to the hoop and win."

The Young Guns have been winning a lot of tournaments over the past couple of basketball seasons. Wilke shared the key to their success.

"We have really good ball movement and the Big Three," Wilke said. "We are really competitive and don't like to lose."

Before their run to the championship game, the Malta fifth grade girls would fall to North Country early on Saturday afternoon in a 26-24 loss. North Country won the game with a mid-range heave that looked like it came out of Emerson Downing's pocket. The third-grader from Saco's shot was true and left only a few seconds on the board.

"I felt like I probably wasn't going to make it because I shot it from the side," Downing said. "But I was really happy when I did make it."

The young Mavericks overcame a 19-7 deficit that was accumulated at halftime.

"They were making shots and we weren't getting rebounds," Laynee Simpson said. "You need to get rebounds so you can dribble down and shoot it again."

Simpson, a Saco fifth-grader was a part of the defensive effort grabbing steals, rebounds and making big shots in their come-from-behind win. Downing believes that rebounds were key to their victory.

"Going up and getting rebounds and getting a jump ball," Downing said. "I loved it. It was a really hard game and it's nice to get a game that's tough."

Simpson offered her thoughts on the annual event.

"It's good," Simpson said. "I'm glad a lot of people came and watched us play."

Malta's fifth-grade girls team would eventually fight back and face North Country in an elimination game. Malta would win and ride the momentum to the championship where they would lose 18-12 to Havre.