Mustangs remain 2B Champs!

The Malta Mustangs were able to retain their status as District 2B Champions, defeating the Poplar Indians 55-41 in the 2018 District 2B Championship last Saturday, February 17, at Wolf Point High School.

The Mustangs were able to make it to the championship game by defeating the Wolf Point Wolves 59-38 on Friday, February 16.

The championship win set up Malta to face the Choteau Bulldogs in the opening game of the 2018 Northern B Divisional Tournament on Thursday, February 22, at 1 p.m.

“That seems to be the team we cant get away from,” Malta Head Coach David Costin said. “We seem to play them every year at divisionals.”

The Bulldogs lost the 1B consolation finals last Saturday, February 17, to the Fairfield Eagles in a close game that was decided by a score of 60-57.

“They like to play a pressure man-to-man defense,” Coach Costin said. “Offensively, they are a team that is high paced, high octane. They are going to put up a ton of shots from anywhere. They love to drive it, they love to shoot the three. This weekend is going to come down to being able to stay in front of those guys.”

Depending on the outcome of the game, Malta will either face the Glasgow Scotties or Rocky Boy Northern Stars, who are both on the same side of the bracket.

Rocky Boy, who lost the 1B championship to the Shelby Coyotes last Saturday, February 17, has a huge problem in the middle, Kendall Windy Boy, a 6-7 junior, whom Malta’s Taylor Matthews has matched up well against in both regular season games, though Malta lost those games.

The Northern Stars also have capable scorers on the outside, who gave Malta problems in both of their regular season clashes.

“Ben Iron Eyes is a tough one to defend,” Coach Costin said. “Kordell Small, their point guard, is a very good player. He is extremely quick and a match-up problem for us… If we play like we had that past weekend, I think we can do a better good and win if we happen to see them.”

On the other side of the bracket, the 1B District champion Shelby Coyotes and Wolf Point Wolves will face each other in the opening round, while 2B runner-up Poplar faces Fairfield.

In the 2B championship game, Malta defeated Poplar 55-41, in a tightly contested game. Malta was led by Matthews who had 20 points.

Konner Kuehn had 12 points and seven rebounds. Tel Jensen had eight points. Kevin Henry had seven points. Landon VanWichen had seven points and six steals.

Malta posted only eight turnovers while forcing 10. They were also aggressive, getting to the line for 21 attempts, knocking down 15 of those shots. Malta also out-rebounded Poplar 27-25.

“On Friday, we shot 71 percent (free throw attempts) and Saturday night (against Poplar) we shot 79 percent,” Coach Costin said. “And the lack of turnovers was huge because we had been averaging 20 and we got it down to where we would like to be, around ten.”

Malta’s defense only allowed one point until the last minute of the first quarter, in which the Mustangs outscored the Indians 9-3.

“We protected the rim better,” Coach Costin said. “We did a better job at the rim defensively for the most part.”

Poplar picked up steam and momentum in the second and third quarters, outscoring Malta 12-11 and 16-10 respectively, giving them a 31-30 lead heading into the fourth quarter. The Mustangs would go on a 25-10 run in the fourth quarter.

“We got down by as much as four, and things just rolled for us,” Coach Costin said.

In their 2B tourney opener against Wolf Point last Friday, February 16, Malta would be led by Kuehn, who scored 19 points, while also racking up five rebounds and two steals. Henry had 12 points, Jensen had 11 points, and Matthews had seven points.

“We had a couple of seniors step up,” Coach Costin said. “I thought Landon stepped up and did some really good things for us, Tel had a very good weekend for us. We just needed those guys to complete us as a team.”