Mustangs go 0-2 in non-conference games

The Malta Mustangs dropped a pair of games last week as they fell 65-51 to the Rocky Boy Northern Stars on Friday, January 10, and then 51-46 to the Roundup Panthers in Malta on Saturday, January 11.

Malta will face the Glasgow Scotties on Friday, January 17, in Glasgow and then the Shelby Coyotes on Saturday, January 18, a pair of teams that feature plenty of length and talent.

"Glasgow is playing a lot of 1-3-1 and halfcourt trap, and a box and 1," Coach Costin said. "We will work on it this week and hopefully we figure out how to attack those defenses. They are like us where they have a little trouble scoring at times."

Coach Costin knows that Shelby will be tough given their recent history atop the Northern B.

"They are one of the top one or two teams in the division and they have size, the Reynolds kid who is 6'9" and that have a lot of talent around him," Coach Costin said.

The tempo of the game was an issue for Malta with Rocky Boy playing faster on both sides of the ball, this led to lost possessions.

"I thought our effort against Rocky Boy was pretty good," Coach Costin said. "I think our issue out there is that we were sped up a little bit and we turned the ball over quite a bit, i would say about 25 times."

Rocky Boy's extended zone on defense gave Malta issues and the team didn't attack well.

Despite the glaring amount of turnovers, Malta kept the game closer than it could've been.

"Even with all of those mistakes, we had our chances and we got close a few times," Coach Costin said. "Then we would go on a minute to two-minute span where we just made a few mistakes and Rocky Boy would go up ten points."

In Malta's game against Roundup, a three-point output by Malta, would eventually come back to haunt them.

"Against Roundup, I thought that our effort was horrible," Coach costin said. "We stood around a lot and didn't execute. We called a couple of time outs to try to make some adjustments and we just didn't make them. You are not going to get wins if you are playing hard and smart and we were at a standstill."

Coach Costin also said that the games they had played could've been won had the team given more of an effort last weekend.

The team was without Tanner Smith who had an injury last week. The team leaned on their reserves last weekend and Coach Costin was happy with the process, given the situation.

"Pierce (Mortenson) has stepped up and is playing pretty well," Coach Costin said. "It forced me to play Darrow Messerly and Kanyon Stiles, our two sophomores off the bench, and they do pretty well for us. Going forward we need a little more depth."