M-ette Basketball: Team off to hot 2-0 start; face Glasgow and Poplar this week

The Malta M-ettes are playing just as fast and furious as they were last season, which may be scary for any team they face.

The M-ettes are 2-0 after kicking off their regular season against Class A's Havre Blue Ponies and Fergus Lady Eagles.

Senior M-ette Markelle Lettis no stranger to facing Fergus and Havre.

Though facing teams in a class higher than you can be intimidating, Lett seemed confident.

"Not really because I know that we are good and we're going to do great things," she said when she was asked about being timid against class A teams.

Malta faced Fergus in their home opener and blew them out 52-30 on Saturday.

Malta was led by Sophomore Sophia Stiles, who had 17 points. She was eight of nine from the free throw line and had nine rebounds and five steals.

Hailey Nicholson also had a great outing scoring 13 points, snatching eight rebounds and four steals.

"It was a little chaotic (tonight)," Hailey Nicholson told the PCN. "I think we were still nervous because it's the beginning of the season."

Nicholson made a few great defensive plays in the game, she attributes her game to hard work.

"I just work hard, especially in games," Nicholson said.

She also admitted that she works on her game a lot in the off-season. And it shows.

"We had open gym every night and I was there most of the time," Nicholson said.

Markelle Lett added nine points. Darby Schye and Marley Manoukian both had four points in the win. Schye recorded nine rebounds. Rebecca Smith recorded three points and Adrianna Bibeau had two.

"I think we started off slow and finally got into the swing of things," Markelle Lett said.

The M-ettes seemed to force turnovers and errors at will, and should have been able to put the game away faster than they did.

Malta was 19 of 59 (32%) from the field.

One thing that helped was the fact Fergus was worse of from the field going nine of 34 (26%).

Malta was only two of 13 (13%) from long range, while Fergus was five of 15 (33%).

Other than Malta's stifling defense, one thing that came in handy was Malta's ability to hit their free throws. The team was 12 of 15 (80%) from the free throw line.

Malta also had 37 rebounds.

In their season opener against the defending Class A State Champion Havre Blue Ponies, Malta won 62-43.

"I was excited," Nicholson said when she was asked how she felt about starting against Havre. "I like playing them first. It's gets us going."

Malta took a 17-10 lead at the end of the first quarter and didn't give it up.

The team was led by Nicholson who scored 20 points and had seven rebounds, two steals and two assists.

Stiles had the team's first triple double on the year, scoring 12 points, racking up 10 rebounds and 12 assists. She also had six steals and a block.

Darby Schye had a double-double, scoring 10 points and collecting a team lead of 12 rebounds.

Kelsey Kuehn added six points. Manoukian and Lett both had five points a piece. Rebecca Smith added a trey