M-ettes fall in District Tourney

The Malta-Fairfield rivalry will see another chapter this weekend as the teams are set to open the Northern B Divisional in Malta on Thursday, February 21.

“We are excited to have a divisional here and we feel we can be competitive in it,” M-ettes Head Coach Nate Hammond said.

Both teams missed out on the State B Girls’ Basketball Tournament last season and both enter this weekend’s Northern B tourney on different sides of the spectrum. While Malta fell to the Glasgow Lady Scotties 54-43 last Saturday, February 16, to fall into the fourth seed, Fairfield defeated Cut Bank 46-42 for the District 1B crown.

Malta also fell to Wolf Point in the District 2B semifinals on Friday, February 15, in Glasgow. Wolf Point would go on to win the 2B Championship game over Harlem the next night.

In Malta’s semi-final loss to the Lady Wolves, Malta was led by Kloie Marks who had 13 points, five rebounds, and four assists. Kyleigh Schipman had seven points and four rebounds. Justine Lamb had six points. Erica Smith had five points and five rebounds. Carly Garfield had four points and five rebounds. Aidan Weise had three points.

“I think we played pretty hard,” Coach Hammond said. We just couldn’t maintain it. They were just making a lot of shots. They shot well from outside and they were a little big for us.”

Wolf Point was led by Imani Bighorn who had 32 points. Mary Bighorn netted 14 points, and Mya Fourstar had 13 points.

“She shot well and she was just too much for us to handle that night,” Coach Hammond said.

Malta ended the first quarter behind by only seven points. The score was 18-11. The Lady Wolves would turn up the pressure in the second and third periods outscoring Malta 21-11 in the second and 26-13 in the third. Wolf Point would outscore the M-ettes 11-8 in the fourth quarters.

Wolf Point went up by as much as 38 points and led the whole game.

Malta made it to the free throw line for 30 attempts and drained 18 shots (60%). Malta also had 12 turnovers, while Wolf Point had 10. Malta struggled to shoot, only making 11 of their 44 attempts (25%). Wolf Point was 33-of-68 (48%).

“We didn’t turn over the ball too much this weekend,” Coach Hammond said. “We took care of the ball all weekend, we just didn’t shoot well all weekend. We had trouble shooting. And it was the same way earlier this year in that gym when we played Glasgow. Hopefully, those shooting woes will go away when we get in our own gym.”

In Malta’s loss to Glasgow, Schipman led the M-ettes with a 12 point, 10 rebound double-double. Marks had 10 points and six rebounds. Wiese had six points. Smith had five points, four steals, and three assists. Garfield had four points and seven rebounds. Kylie Hunter had three points and three rebounds. Sidney Meeks had two points.

“We had a poor third quarter and some breakdowns on defense and you have to be able to make some shots. We actually took twenty more shots than Glasgow that night but we couldn’t knock them down.”

Malta had gained the lead going into halftime, outscoring the Lady Scotties 20-19 before the break. Glasgow would open things up in the third quarter, outscoring Malta 23-12 in the third quarter. Malta outscored Glasgow 12-10 in the fourth.

Malta was 14-of-66 from the field (21%), including 5-of-40 from the three-point line (12%).