M-ettes Host Glasgow, Raise over $5K for Skyla

Though the team had the weekend off, the middle of the week was busy for the Malta M-ettes basketball team who hosted the Havre Lady Blue Ponies on Tuesday, January 24, and then the Glasgow Lady Scotties on Thursday, January 26.

The M-ettes battled hard against Havre but lost 59-50, but bounced back with a dominant 71-26 victory over Glasgow.

The game against the Lady Scotties also served as a "Retro Night" fundraiser headed up by the Malta High School Student Council for M-ette legend Skyla Sisco, who helped Malta win the Class B State Title in 1991. She went on to become a University of Montana Lady Griz standout and was named to the school's hall of fame in 2021. Sisco is currently battling breast cancer.

The M-ettes and Student Council collected bucket donations prior to Malta's varsity games against Glasgow, and the MHS students and fans wore retro Malta gear in support.

The night was also MHS Senior night. M-ettes Addy Anderson, Brylee French, Allison Kunze, Madison Williamson and Mustangs Kaden Bishop, Reese Brown (manager), Jared Eggebrecht, Eli Hanson, Seth Siewing, and Jon Siewing.

With the M-ettes closing out the night, Anderson was asked how senior night went.

"It was good to finally have a lot of people at our game because usually everyone just leaves during the girls games," Anderson said with a laugh. "So it was actually pretty good."

In Malta's win over Glasgow, the M-ettes were led by Williamson who scored 13 points and had four steals.

Neva Jacobson had nine points, three assists, and three rebounds. Kunze had eight points and five rebounds. French had seven points, Elly Anderson had seven points, Denvyr Tuss had six points and seven rebounds, A. Anderson had six points, Kendall Clausen had four points, Kelbie Nelson had three points, Emree Stuart had three points, Gracie Honey had two points, Addison Ulrich had two points, and Giona Lamb had one point.

"We really focused on sticking it to them with our defense," French said. "We started out in man-to-man and then switched it up. We also shot the ball really, really well tonight and we looked for each other on the court."

In Malta's loss to Havre, the M-ettes were led by Williamson, who had 24 points, eight steals, five rebounds, and three assists.

Kunze had 18 points, seven rebounds, and one block. French had five points and three rebounds. Anderson had four points and three rebounds. Tuss had three points, four rebounds, and four steals.

Havre was led by Amara Jarvis who had 24 points. Ariona Gray had 12 points.

"We definitely played better than we did when we were in Havre, but I feel like we could've looked for each other more on the court," Anderson said. "And we could've executed our offense a little better. We had a few more turnovers but other than that our stats matched up with theirs. They just played a little better than us."

Malta went up 8-2 after capitalizing on three early steals. After a Havre timeout, the Blue Ponies went on an 11 point run, going up 13-8 with 4:20 remaining in the first. After a timeout by Coach Hammond, the M-ettes defense held Havre to four points the rest of the quarter, and Malta scored seven. Havre was up 17-15 after the first quarter.

Malta struggled to score in the second quarter, and the Blue Ponies outscored the M-ettes 17-8. The halftime score was 34-23. Malta was able to tighten things up in the second half, and the M-ettes went on a 10-2 run in the first four minutes. Havre's lead was down to five and the score was 36-31. Malta was able to cut further into Havre's lead with less than a minute remaining in the third quarter after Tuss made a pair of free throws, bringing the score to 39-38. Havre scored a buzzer beating layup at the end of the period. The score was 41-38 at the end of three quarters. The Blue Ponies outscored Malta 18-12 in the fourth quarter.

The M-ettes missed all eight of their three point tries in the game. They made 18-of-45 (40%) shot attempts and 14-of-18 of their free throw attempts.

With the postseason coming up in a couple of weeks, French was asked what the team can improve on.

"I think that we just want to be in really good shape because we are going to have to play tougher opponents," French said. "There will be tougher games like the ones against Havre, so we are going to have to be ready for it. I think that if we can polish things up a bit, we will be able to be really tough at state."

This week, the M-ettes are scheduled to travel to Rocky Boy on Thursday, February 2, to face the Northern Stars at 7:30 p.m. They will then travel to Roundup to face the Lady Panthers at 5 p.m. on Saturday, February 4.