M-ettes win second straight Northern B Title

The Malta M-ettes will have a chance to defend their 2015 State B Title after not only making it to state but retaining their Northern B title after surviving a late offensive serge from the Fairfield Lady Eagles. Prior to that Malta had defeated the Shelby Coyotes 58-36 in the opening round on Thursday and the Choteau Bulldogs 49-21 in the semi-final round last Saturday.

The team knows the title won't be given to them on a platter so they intend to better themselves this week to try and win back to back for the first time since their 1999 and 2000 titles.

"We've got to work hard at practice, give it our all, come ready to play as a team and just win," M-ette junior Sophia Stiles told the PCN after their championship game.

Malta will first see the Bigfork Valkyries who come into the tournament as the Western B Division's third seed.

Bigfork is 17-5 this season and though they lost the first game of the 2016 Western B to Missoula-Loyola, the team fought back in consolation, defeating Troy, Florence and Libby.

The team's lead scorer will likely be Miranda Campbell who scored 28 points in Bigfork's final two games in the Western B. Not far behind Campbell will be Jamie Berg and Mattison McAnally who both proved they are capable of scoring double digits.

On the same side of the bracket will be the Shepherd Fillies, who is the only other undefeated team in the State B tourney.

Shepherd won the Southern B title; defeating Forsyth who was undefeated before meeting Malta in the 2015 State B Tournament's semi-final round last Saturday.

Shepherd will square off against Loyola Sacred Heart who is the Western B's runner up after falling 54-47 to Ronan in the Championship on Saturday, February 27.

On the other side of the bracket, Western B champs Ronan will take on Saint Labre, the Southern B's third seed.

The South's runner up Forsyth will see Fairfield, who held off Choteau 35-14 in Monday night's challenge game.

With Fairfield still alive Malta may have to repeat last Saturday's effort and then some.

In the Northern B Championship game, Malta was led by Sophia Stiles, who scored 19 points, notched up six rebounds, five steals and two blocks. Stiles was 11 for 16 from the charity stripe.

Stiles noted that defense was the key to their win.

"Just defense mainly," Stiles said. "Just pushing the ball hard on offense and coming together as a team."

Early in the game, Stiles and Malta's offense was a little frustrated.

"It just seemed like not everything was going the way we had planned," Stiles said. "So, when it wasn't necessarily going our way, we just had to get through, get our heads in the game and just persevere."

Hailey Nicholson had a monstrous game scoring 13 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Jada Nicholson scored eight points and had six rebounds. Marley Manoukian had two points and four rebounds.

H. Nicholson also mentioned defense as the main key to their victory.

"I think our defense won the game for us," Hailey said. "I think that's easy to say and I think it was obvious if you were watching the game."

The M-ettes had a tall task in trying to slow down Lady Eagle junior Natalie Klinker who stands over six feet tall.

Klinker had a good game scoring 16 and racking up 13 rebounds, but she was mostly held in check by Malta's defense.

The game was extremely close in the first quarter with Malta leading 16-14, before Malta extended their lead before halftime. Malta's defense stood tall in the second only allowing three points in the second quarter. The score was 26-17.

It seemed as though Malta would pull away in the third after going up by as much as twelve points, but Fairfield stuck around matching Malta's 11 point output in the third quarter. The end of quarter score was 37-28.

Fairfield caught fire in the fourth quarter with every call going in their direction and they eventually whittled down Malta's lead to one with 1:15 left to go in the fourth quarter.

"I think we knew what we needed to do and I do think we let (one point) scare us," Nicholson said. "We knew we had to continue to play hard until the end and that's what we did."

Hailey has enjoyed playing with her younger sister, first year starter Jada, who also plays wing for the team.

"I love playing with Jada, she's a really smart player and a great person to play with," Hailey said. "She's got a lot of natural talent."

With the Northern B Title on the line Malta was able to ice the game at the charity stripe with Sophia Stiles knocking down three of four free throw attempts. The final score 46-42.

During their final run Fairfield turned up the intensity and calls did not go the way Malta wanted, but the team kept their composure.

"I don't keep cool, I get frustrated and I let that push me to play even harder," Hailey said admitting she never vocally expresses her disdain for calls on the court.

Coach Hammond chalks the calls up to mistakes.

"We had some mistakes down the stretch and a couple of missed opportunities around the basket, but we did enough to win," Coach Hammond said.

Coach Hammond also mentioned that the team doesn't get caught up talking about calls that officials make.

"When you start talking about a call, which is something you can't do anything about, you start wasting your time," he said.

The team instead focuses on solid defense and rebounding.

Both teams shot below an ideal average, with Malta shooting at 31 percent and Fairfield at 39 percent.

Malta was 0-for-8 from three point range, while Fairfield only hit 1-of-7 attempts from outside.

Malta outrebounded Fairfield 28 to 27. The M-ettes forced 16 turnovers, while Fairfield had nine. Malta only scored seven points off of turnovers but Fairfield was held to only six points off of turnovers.

"Even though down the stretch we missed a couple of free throws, missed a couple shots, there were times in the second half that we made some tough shots," Coach Hammond said praising his team. "We made some big shots and we made enough to win. We can't forget about that."