M-ettes finish strong / Malta wins last game of season

The Malta M-ettes basketball season ended with a victory, but unfortunately, the team and other teams that were still in the 2020 Class B tournament Consolation bracket, have no hardware.

The tournament came to an end last Friday night amid the National crisis caused by the 2019 strain of the Coronavirus (COVID-19). While other national sporting events were canceled days prior, the Montana State Basketball tournaments went on for two out of the three scheduled days. Four cases of the virus were found to be positive, pushing the MHSA to cancel the event.

Malta Head Coach Nate Hammond shared his thoughts on the subject.

"I was disappointed that it ended," Coach Hammond said. "I think all of the teams, coaches, and people involved in the tournament wanted it to go one more day just to prove themselves."

Coach went on to say that in general, he was extremely happy with how the M-ettes performed late in the season, mentioning their 2020 Northern B Title and their win at state.

"I am glad the season didn't end one week before or two weeks before because we had a pretty good run at the end," Coach Hammond said.

At State, Malta lost their opening game of the tournament against the Forsyth Dogies last Thursday in Butte but went on to defeat Bigfork in the opening round of consolation.

Malta was able to overcome some tough breaks on missed foul calls and poor free-throw shooting late in their win over the Bigfork Valkyries on Friday morning. The score was 48-43.

"We played good defense and we hustled," M-ette Co-Captain Erica Smith said. "They weren't calling some stuff but the girls did really good today and it was an awesome win for us."

The win was Malta's first state win since 2017. Seniors Kelbee Denham and Carly Garfield, who were also captains that day, were a part of that team but did not have significant playing time that season.

"It definitely feels good earning it ourselves," Denham said. "When we were freshman, we just kind of sat on the bench and we sat along for the ride. But here we are leaders, and taking it one game at a time."

It was the first state tournament that the junior class had been a part of.

"It's a great experience for all of us," Smith said. "I am glad because I got to put in my efforts towards it and I am a part of (being here)."

In the win over Bigfork, the M-ettes were led in scoring by Nelson who had 11 points. Denham had nine points, all of which came from the free-throw line. Denham was 9-of-10 from the charity stripe, which included the last two points of the game to put the game out of reach with only 17 seconds remaining in regulation.

Freshman Allie Kunze had seven points and eight rebounds. Garfield had six points, nine rebounds, and two blocks.

The M-ettes controlled the boards grabbing 47 rebounds to Bigfork's 26. Malta had 21 offensive rebounds.

Malta led throughout the game and had their largest lead midway through the third quarter. Bigfork had a run in the third period, highlighted by a technical foul, that was reportedly an accidental trip by Justine Lamb.

During that same period, the crowd and Malta bench was up in arms for several no calls during a pair of fast-break layup attempts by Kunze.

The M-ettes drew several fouls late in the game and missed a few late attempts while trying to run out the clock. With time running out, ultimately the ball was passed to Denham who put the game away with two made free throws.

"I was feeling pretty confident with my free throws, so I kind of wanted the ball at the end because I knew I could get the job done," Denham said.

The M-ettes opened their state tournament journey against the Forsyth Dogies, featuring 6-6 post Lindsey Hein, daughter of former M-ette Terri Hein. The M-ettes would lose 45-41 to the Dogies.

"I think most of our focus was on shutting done (Lindsey), so we were playing help defense with her and I think that their outside shots killed us because we weren't as focused on them," Denham said.

Malta was led by Kunze, who had 12 points and five rebounds. Denham had 10 points, six rebounds, and a steal.

Lamb had eight points and was 3-of-4 from the free-throw line.

Garfield, who is listed at 6-0 talked about the task of going against Lindsey Hein. She had never tried guarding anyone 6-6.

"I think it went pretty well but obviously it is pretty hard to stop somebody that tall," Garfield said. "She is really handy and she knows what she is doing. Really, you just have to be tough with her and have help defense."

Malta outrebounded Forsyth 38 to 34. Forsyth racked up a total of 13 assists while Malta had three. Malta was 17-of-52 (32.7 percent) from the floor, while the Dogies were 17-of-44 (38.6 percent).

Malta made two of their ten three-point attempts (20 percent), while Forsyth made four of eleven three-point shots (36 percent).

Forsyth was led by Hein who had 20 points, nine boards, and four blocks. Jordan Cookman had 13 points and made all three of her trey attempts.

Malta fell behind 9-4 early in the game but scored the final two buckets of the quarter. The teams went back and forward throughout most of the game and the M-ettes stayed within two possessions of Forsyth. The game was tied two times and there were four lead changes. The Dogies' largest lead occurred in the third quarter as they led 26-20 after a three-point field goal by Cookman with 7:44 remaining in the third. Forsyth led 33-28 with 1:30 to go. Malta ultimately tied the game before the end of the quarter thanks to a made free throw by Lamb, a three-pointer by Denham, and another made free throw by Maddie Willamson.

The M-ettes did have the lead as Williamson scored a putback bucket with 7:15 left in the game. The score was 35-33. The Dogies went on to outscore Malta 12-8 in the fourth, sending Malta to the consolation finals.

"We stuck right with them the whole game and we weren't giving up, so it was a good game," Denham said.

The Dogies went on to defeat the Big Timber Herders 46-30 in the semi-final game, earning the Forsyth Dogies a Co-state championship trophy with the Missoula-Loyola Sacred Hearts who won their semi-final game 46-21.

The title is the second championship for Missoula-Loyola and the first for Forsyth.