Malta defeats Fairfield but lose out

The season came to an end for the Malta M-ettes last weekend at the Northern B Divisional Tournament in Malta, but not before giving the home crowd a satisfying victory over the state-bound Fairfield Eagles.

The M-ettes finished the 2018-19 season 11-11.

"I thought we had really good senior leadership," M-ette Coach Nate Hammond said about this year's team. "I was proud of those kids. The only non-conference games we lost this season were to Havre. We had a tough (district) this year. Wolf Point, Harlem and Glasgow just gave us trouble. I was happy with some of the senior leadership we had and some of the younger kids. The JV teams and C-Squad teams did great this season and we are looking forward to big things from them."

The M-ettes pulled off an opening round upset over Fairfield by defeating the Eagles 32-20 in the opening game of the tournament. Malta would go on to lose to the Harlem Wildcats, who won the Northern B Divisional for the first time in the school's history over Wolf Point in a 46-43 thriller on Saturday, February 23.

"We definitely have to click right here because this is when it matters most," M-ette senior Kloie Marks told the PCN after the victory over Fairfield. "We wanted to play together and it really helped that we were in our own gym, so it was going to be a good game no matter what."

Malta's hope of reaching state would ultimately be dashed by the Glasgow Lady Scotties in the consolation semifinals. Glasgow would go on to lose the consolation final game 44-30 to Fairfield last Saturday night.

In Malta's win over Fairfield, both teams struggled to shoot with Fairfield only making 2-of-23 (8.70 %) shots in the first half and 9-of-48 (18.8 %) in the entire game. Malta shot slightly better going 3-of-17 (17.6 %) in the first half and 10-of-41 (24.4 %) in the whole game.

Though some of the misses could be chalked up to poor shooting, both defenses contested shots, making it tough to score.

"I think defense played pretty well," Marks said. "We were doing some new defenses this week and putting those in. Those defenses seemed to work really well, especially on this team."

Malta was led by Kyleigh Schipman, who scored 10 points and had seven rebounds. Erica Smith had eight points. Marks had eight points. Carly Garfield had two points and ten rebounds. Kylie Hunter had two points. Raina Mortenson had two points.

Garfield's play inside was one reason that Malta was able to slow down Fairfield in the paint.

"It was very tough because they like to drive and they are also very good at defense, so we had to be as tough as we could for us to do good in this game," Garfield said.

Malta had 14 turnovers but only gave up five points off of turnovers. Fairfield had eight turnovers and only gave up two points off those turnovers. Malta held the largest lead of the game, leading 17-9 in the third quarter. There were nine lead changes and seven ties.

"The crowd was really encouraging," Smith said. "They were bringing all of the excitement, so that was really good. That brought our energy up."

Malta gained a 4-3 lead over Fairfield in the first period, followed by a 7-6 outing in the second quarter. The halftime score was 11-9. The teams went back and forth in the third and fourth periods as both teams ultimately scored 22 points during the span.

"They kept fighting," Coach Hammond said. "That was the biggest thing. We were struggling offensively and missing shots but they played really good defense and kept battling. Down the stretch they caught a break or two and were able to win the game."

Thanks to a quick offensive putback, Smith put the M-ettes up 31-30 with 26.7 second remaining in the game. Smith would later hit a free throw to extend Malta's lead to 32-30.

"I was nervous because I hadn't scored that much in the beginning but I was like, I have to be more confident in this one," Smith said. "I just need to make something to get me pumped."

In Malta's loss to Harlem in the semifinals on Friday, February 22, Malta was led by Smith who had 12 points and five assists. Garfield had 10 points and nine rebounds. Marks had nine points. Justine Lamb had two points and Sydney Meeks had one point.

Harlem's L'Tia Lawrence had a 20 point, 11 rebound double-double. Skylee Dirden had 13 points.

Malta made 13-of-44 (29.5%) shots from the field, while Harlem was 17-of-39 (43%).

In Malta's loss to Glasgow, the M-ettes were led by Smith who had nine points and seven rebounds.

"We had lots of good opportunities and we couldn't capitalize on them," Coach Hammond said. "We were kind of in a rut on offense."

Meeks had six points. Marks, Mortenson, and Garfield each scored five. Schipman added three to the total.

Glasgow's Taylor Pederson led the Lady Scotties with 20 points and eight rebounds.

The M-ettes were unable to score any points in the opening period, while Glasgow scored six. Glasgow then outscored Malta 14-9 in the second period going on a 13-2 run early in the period. Malta scored 13 points, while holding Glasgow to 12 in the third. Glasgow would top Malta in the fourth period scoring 12, while holding Malta to 11.