Mustangs Take Second in 2B Championship

The Malta Mustangs Basketball team lost the District 2B Championship game to the Wolf Point Wolves last Saturday, February 18, in Malta.

The Mustangs were able to outlast the Poplar Indians in the 2B semi-finals on Thursday, February 16. The score was 46-43.

Malta will face the Rocky Boy Stars in the opening round of the Northern B Divisional Tournament in Shelby on Thursday, March 2. Only two out of eight Northern B teams will make it to the State B Tournament in Great Falls that starts on Thursday, March 9.

In the team's loss to Wolf Point, the Mustangs were led in scoring by sophomore Treyton Wilke who had 20 points and three assists.

Sophomore Bohdi Brenden had 19 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and five steals. Senior Jared Eggebrecht had 10 points, four rebounds, and two assists. Stockton Oxarart had nine points, five rebounds, and two assists. Eli Hanson had six points and eight rebounds.

Wolf Point was led by former Mustang football player Juliun Benson who had 17 points. Gaige Bushman had 11 points, and Kraven Silk had 10 points.

Though Malta held a short lead throughout most of the first quarter, Wolf Point took their first lead at the last second of the quarter. Wolf Point's Cade Stafne hit a buzzer beating trey to end the quarter putting the Wolves up 16-13. The Wolves maintained their lead throughout the remainder of the game.

Malta gave up 20 points in the second quarter and only scored 10.

"I think that we are our own worst enemies at times," Malta Head Coach David Costin said. "There are details that we don't do and there is maybe a lack of leadership, and we kind of let those other teams go on runs on us and unfortunately when you play a very good team you dig a big hole."

He said that it was a big hole, but he was proud of how the team handled being down in the game.

"I have to give our guys credit because (in every game) we never quit battling, we keep fighting. This game, we got it down to two at the end and had a chance to possibly tie it or go ahead but Wolf Point made the plays that they needed to and ended up winning," Coach Costin said. I think that if we could take our own mistakes out of the game, I think we are sitting pretty good."

The Mustangs outscored the wolves 18-17 in the third quarter and 23-15 in the fourth quarter, and came within two points (66-64) in their last possession, but WP's Lennox Lilley would put the game out of reach with a pair of made free throws.

Malta turned the ball over 18 times, while forcing 11 turnovers. Malta made 13-of-28 (46%) two-point field goal attempts, while Wolf Point was 13-of-26 (50%). The teams were also similar from three point range. Malta made 9-of-20 (45%) and Wolf Point made 9-of-21 (47.6%) three point attempts.

In Malta's semi-final game against Poplar, shots were not falling. The Mustangs made 16-of-34 shot attempts from within the three point line. They also made only 3-of-17 (17.6%) three point attempts. Malta also lost the turnover battle against Poplar, but by a smaller margin of 12-to-11.

Wilke led Malta in scoring against Poplar with 17 points and eight rebounds. Brenden had 14 points, four rebounds, and three assists.

Malta outscored Poplar 8-5 in the first quarter, but Poplar bounced back in the second and outscored Malta 14-6. The halftime score was 19-14 in favor of Poplar. Both teams scored 16 in the third quarter. Poplar led 35-30.

With around three minutes remaining, Brenden found Wilke for a three pointer, bringing Poplar's lead from 41-37 to 41-40. Poplar would score two on their next possession, but Wilke would respond on the other end with a putback layup that earned him one shot at the free throw line. Wilke tied things up 43-all with about 2:35 remaining.

The teams would fail to score in their next possession. Oxarart collected a steal off of a deflection by Brenden with 1:38 remaining. After a timeout was taken, Oxarart drove to the paint for a layup that put Malta up 45-43 with 1:25 remaining.

On Poplar's next possession, Wilke would take a charge, earning Malta another possession. Both teams were unable to score in their next possessions. Brenden would make one free throw shot to give the game the final total of 46-43 with about 20 seconds remaining.

"Poplar played very well," Coach Costin said. "They defended well and were pretty disciplined on offense. We had shot ourselves in the foot a little bit, but we didn't dig as big of a whole as we did in the championship. We got it tied up near the end and I thought that our kids did a good job of executing in the last couple of minutes."

To start the Northern B Divisional Tournament, Malta will face Rocky Boy, District 1B's third place finisher last weekend in Cut Bank last Saturday. Malta's game is scheduled for Thursday, March 2, but no time has been provided yet.

"Going into divisionals we cannot make the silly, unforced errors and turnovers that we have been making because there is not a lot of leeway anymore," Coach Costin said.

Malta defeated Rocky Boy in both meetings this year. They won 53-48 in Malta in early January and 73-53 in February.

"Rocky Boy is a team that is pretty explosive offensively," Coach Costin said.

He said that the team can be successful again against Rocky Boy if they can come out focused, defend and rebound, without allowing second chance shots.