Mustang Basketball: Malta dominates Fergus in home opener; Fall to Blue Ponies

Malta did a little more than just protect their home court against Class A's Fergus Golden Eagles last Saturday.

They put on a clinic, thrashing Fergus 59-30 in Malta's 2014 home opener.

The win comes after Malta dropped their season opener 54-39 to the Havre Blue Ponies.

Senior Jeremy Costin, led the team in scoring with 19 points. He nailed all three of the team's three pointers that night.

"We played a lot better than yesterday, that's for sure," Williamson said. "Our offense was more patient. We shot the ball too quick last game and we played a lot better defense."

Junior Allen Williamson got the party started right away scoring 12 of his 19 points in the first quarter of the game.

Sophomore Nate Costin added 12 points to the total, and was six of seven from the free throw line.

"We did real well," Nate Costin told the PCN. "Played great defense, great offense and executed well. We had great intensity levels so no complaints."

Junior Jase Galt added six. Fellow Juniors Ostin Welch and Devon Raybon added 2 points, while Jayce Bishop added one more point.

Williamson's 12 points and two treys from Jeremy Costin made up Malta's first quarter total, but it wasn't without a strong defensive effort from the entire team, who looked strong.

To Fergus' credit, the Golden Eagles kept it closer than it should have been in the first half as they were only behind 23-30.

Eventually Fergus shot themselves out of the game as they missed trey after trey, giving Malta the advantage.

With less than five minutes remaining and a thirty point lead, Coach Costin eventually pulled his starters off the court, letting the bench mob get some minutes.

If needed the bench looks like they could be up to the challenge, especially defensively.

It was the team's second straight night of facing a larger school, after coming off a 54-39 loss to Havre on Friday.

When asked how they were able to bounce back and crush Fergus, Nate Costin said, "We just switched everything around and we got a new gear. Everything was high intensity, we didn't come out intense enough in the last game."

Costin believes to improve his personal overall game, he needs to improve his defensive game and finish moves to the basket.

For the team to get better, Williamson believes it all starts with bettering the defense.

"We can work harder, play better defense and hustle more," he said. "I need to work on my man to man defense."

In the team's loss to the Havre Blue Ponies Friday, Malta was led by Williamson who had 13 points.

J. Costin added 10, N. Costin added 8, Galt had 4, Tyson Carney had 2, Bishop 1, Welch 1.

The team is looking forward to facing Glasgow, who was a tough team in the regular season for Malta.

In recent history Malta is 14-10 against Glasgow, dating back to December of 2005.

Glasgow had defeated Malta twice last season in the regular season.

Malta then shocked the district, when they defeated Glasgow in the district tournament in Malta.

Glasgow then won Divisional Championship 62-59 in Glasgow.

The team met in the elimination bracket in state. Malta got the last laugh after posting a score of 64-53.

Glasgow returns every player they had last year, and have only lost Lane Herbert to graduation.

The Scotties will be tough at home as always, but Malta is up to the challenge.

"We just need to hustle, work hard, d-up (play good defense)," Williamson said. "I'm pretty excited to play them. It's the team I want to beat most out of anyone."

The game tips off at around 8:00 p.m. in Glasgow on Friday.

The team then comes back home to play the Poplar Indians at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.