M-ettes roll to 2-0 start after wins in Shelby

A few of their starters may be different than last season, but the Malta M-ettes proved last weekend at the Shelby Invitational that they can be just as tenacious as they have been in years past as the team picked up a 48-32 win against the reigning Class C Champion Belt Huskies on Friday and then a commanding 54-11 victory over Bigfork on last Saturday evening. The team will look to defend their home-court against the Harlem Lady Cats this Friday night. They will then travel to Poplar to take on the Indians.

“We had two good games, two good teams in Belt and Bigfork,” M-ettes Head Coach Nate Hammond said. “Belt is probably the favorite in Class C this year, so we knew that would be a good challenge.”

In the team’s win against Belt, the M-ettes were led by senior Sophia Stiles, who scored 31 points, racked up eight rebounds, three assists and one steal. She also knocked down three treys.

“She did a great job,” Coach Hammond said of Stiles. “She was 11-of-15 from the field and was all ready to go. That helped us out a lot. Defensively we were able to get a hand on the shooters.”

Jada Nicholson had 11 points, four rebounds and three assists. Eva Harms had 14 rebounds, two steals and two points.

Malta outrebounded Belt 36-23. The team also shut down Belt’s perimeter attack, limiting them to two treys out of 21 attempts (9%). Belt was also 8 of 44 from the field (18%).

“They like to shoot a lot of three pointers,” Coach Hammond said. “We weren’t giving them a lot of second chances. The amount of long shots they were taking were hard to rebound and we gathered up most of them.”

The first big win of the season left the team in good morale.

“I think for every team that plays their first game, they want to see how well you play together and stack up against other good teams,” Coach Hammond said. “So we felt good and felt like we were competitive and have good potential this year.”

In Malta’s win over Bigfork, the team was led by senior post Shay Garfield, who had 15 points, nine rebounds and a steal.

“Usually when the post gets the ball, there is a lot of congestion but she was getting it with one player guarding her,” Coach Hammond said. “She also had three put-backs off of offensive rebounds.”

Stiles had 12 points, six assists, five rebounds and three steals. Stiles was two of three from three point range. Taylor Gilkerson had 11 points and three assists.

“Taylor found herself open quite a bit and she’s a really good shooter,” Coach Hammond said.

Nicholson had seven points, five rebounds and three blocks. Raleigh Hunter added four points. Ella Schye had three points and Kyleigh Schipman had two points.

The team only allowed three field goals against Bigfork, while also displaying different looks defensively.

“Everything we did seemed to work pretty well,” Coach Hammond said.

Coach Hammond also noted the Valkyries focused on Stiles at all times, having two players on her at all times, which opened the door for other M-ette scorers.

The team will face Harlem at 7:30 p.m. on Friday night at the Malta High School Gymnasium and then the team will travel to face Poplar in Poplar at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday.