Mustangs start season 1-1

The Malta Mustangs basketball team split games last weekend at the Shelby Invitational, winning their first game 65-52 over the Bigfork Vikings on Thursday, December 12, then falling 64-50 to the Chinook Sugarbeeters on Friday, December 13.

“We are pretty happy with our team's performance after this weekend,” Mustang Assistant Coach Travis Somerfeld told the PCN. “Being a young team, we were not sure what to expect. We were happy going 1-1. We saw a lot of positives in both games. However, with that, we saw a lot of things that we need to work on.”

This week the Mustangs will see the Harlem Wildcats on Friday, December 20, in Harlem at 6:30 p.m. They will then travel back to Malta on Saturday, December 21, for their home opener against the Poplar Indians. The game against Poplar will be their final game of the 2019 calendar year.

“Harlem and Poplar are going to put a lot of full-court pressure on us,” Coach Somerfeld said. “For us to have any success against both teams we are going to have to be able to break their press. Also, we are going to have to defend in the half-court and defend shooters. Both teams shoot the ball very well from the outside.”

In Malta’s win over Bigfork, the Mustangs were led by Tanner Smith who had an 18-point, ten rebound double-double.

The team had three other scorers hit double digits including Rex Williamson, Kooper Oxarart, and Connor Tuss. Williamson had 15 points, six assists, and four rebounds. Oxarart had 13 points, seven rebounds, three steals, and two blocks. Tuss had a ten-point, ten rebound double-double.

“The major key to our win against Bigfork was first our team rebounding,” Coach Somerfeld said. “As a team, we rebounded very well. We had multiple players with (at least) eight rebounds. The second key was we were patient and unselfish on offense. We worked the ball around and got a lot of good shots offensively. This led to having four players scoring in double figures.”

Malta was able to jump ahead to a 14-9 lead over the Vikings in the first quarter. Smith had nine of his 18 in the first quarter.

The Mustangs also outscored the Vikings 16-11 in the second and 17-10 in the third quarter. The Vikings outscored Malta 22-18 in the fourth quarter.

The Mustangs struggled the next day against the Chinook Sugarbeeters, losing 64-50.

“Chinook played very good man to man defense,” Coach Somerfeld said. “They put a lot of pressure on the ball which flustered our young guards. They also were a very physical team that crashed the boards hard. As a team, we did not match their physicality.”

The team was led by Oxarart, who scored 17 points and racked up four steals. Ben Costin had 11 points and had three assists. Smith and Williamson each had eight points and Tuss had six points.

After seeing the team play their first games, Coach Somerfeld believes he knows what the team will focus on.

“This week we are going to have to improve on how we handle full-court pressure,” Coach Somerfeld said. “Also, we are going to work on being patient on offense and make sure we have more than one or two passes per offensive possession. We are going to want to force Harlem and Poplar to defend us for long periods in the half-court.”