Mustangs to face Wolves first

The Malta Mustangs split their last regular season as they shift their focus to the 2B District Tournament, scheduled to begin on Thursday, February 15, at 6:30 p.m. in the Wolf Point High School Gymnasium.

The Mustangs, took second place in the 2B conference standings, going 7-11 overall and 4-4 in the conference during the regular season. Due to their standing, the team has already qualified for the Northern B “Boys” Divisional in Glasgow starting Thursday, February 22.

Though Malta tied with Glasgow in conference games, the Mustangs had a larger number of points in head to head matchups against Glasgow thanks to their 46-33 win over the Scotties last Thursday, February 8. Malta lost to the Shelby Coyotes on Saturday, February 10, 68-28.

In the win over Glasgow, Malta was led by senior Taylor Matthews, who scored 16 points.

“It went really good,” Matthews said of the win. “We were defending really well, we were executing really well offensively and it was a pretty good one to end at home.”

Matthews led Malta's 13-0 first quarter shutout, scoring eight points.

“You get going and get in the zone and keep going until you miss,” Matthews said of his run. “And then, you are out of the zone.”

Senior Konner Kuehn, who scored the team's first points, a trey off of a pass from Matthews, scored a total of 11 points.

Senior Tel Jensen scored eight points, junior Kevin Henry scored four, junior Landon VanWichen score three, senior Kendall Koss scored two and sophomore Tanner Smith scored two.

Teams would score pretty evenly throughout the rest of the game, but Malta would hold on to their 13 point lead to win 46-33.

“There was just a lot of talking,” Kuehn said. “And getting our boards was huge.”

The night served as senior night at Malta High School, where Matthews, Kuehn, VanWichen and Jensen were honored. Ella Schye was the lone Malta M-ette honored, while cheerleaders TaChante Cole, Shelby Ferrell, Billie Orahood, Adessa Judd and Ashley Scheffelmear were also honored.

“It was really cool (to see) that the community supports Malta (basketball) so well,” Kuehn said. “It is awesome.”

The game was in question due to road safety concerns, but both schools opted to let the event run as scheduled.

“I was excited,” Matthews said upon finding out the game was still on. “Nothing beats playing Glasgow. It was just a fun time.”

Malta lost 68-28 to Shelby last Saturday, as Coyote Aaron White went off for 35 points.

Matthews led Malta with 14 points.

In the 2B District Tournament, Malta is scheduled to face Wolf Point in game two on Friday, February 16 at 4:30 p.m. The winner of the Wolf Point/Malta game will see either first-seed Poplar in the Championship, or the winner of the play-in game between Glasgow and Harlem if the winner can go on to defeat Poplar in game three.

Malta has defeated Wolf Point twice this season, 59-48 on Friday, December 22, and 39-31 on Thursday, January 25.