Mustangs Basketball 2018-19

The 2017-18 season ended in heart-break as the Malta Mustangs basketball team fell to the Glasgow Scotties in the Northern B Divisional Elimination bracket.

Since that game, the team has graduated five seniors, two of which made the 2018 2B All-Conference list with Taylor Matthews receiving All-State and first-team honors and Konner Kuehn receiving second-team honors. Other graduates include Tel Jensen, Kendall Koss, and Landon VanWichen, who each were a part of the 2017 State B Championship team.

Despite being significantly younger in age and experience this season, the Mustangs have been showing potential in their first two weeks of practice.

"We are pretty happy with what we have been seeing," Mustangs Head Coach David Costin said. "A lot of these guys have varsity experience. Kevin Henry is the only one who truly had a lot of varsity experience."

In all, the Mustangs have 21 students between the varsity and sub-varsity teams. Though the numbers are on their side, the experience will be hard earned.

"We are not going to be deep to start with, but once we get a little time under our belts, I see a lot of sophomores being able to step up and play some varsity for us," Coach Costin said.

Without seeing much of the court together, Coach Costin will see where the athletes fit as the season progresses.

This year's varsity team consists of seniors Kevin Henry, Rhett Simanton, and Kaden Bergos; juniors Kendall Moore, Ben Costin, and Tanner Smith; and sophomores Kooper Oxarart, Cormac Benn, Parker Mortenson, and Pierce Mortenson.

"We are kind of finding some roles and our identity as a team," Coach Costin said. "As we get these pre-Christmas games out of the way, I think that we are going to have a better idea of what our team is going to be like."

At the start of the season, Coach Costin plans to have Oxarart run point guard. Oxarart was the starting quarterback for the Malta Mustangs football team this past fall and has had a lot of experience as a point guard in previous years.

Henry has proven himself to be a solid ball-handler, but Coach Costin will look to give Henry opportunities to score off of the ball.

"Kevin is a good slasher/scorer, so we are kind of looking at him in that regard," Coach Costin said.

Henry has logged minutes in the past two seasons and so far has the most experience, along with Simanton, Smith, and Bergos. The quadrant each played minutes in sub-varsity during Malta's 2017 championship run, so they are familiar with a tactic Coach Costin used that year.

"It was a weird off-season for us," Coach Costin said. "We didn't play as much basketball as we usually do, so right now we are doing some morning shootarounds, we did that quite a bit in 2017, and that seemed to help us out a lot with our shooting."

Not knowing what he has in his team, Coach Costin hasn't closed the door to younger basketball players playing varsity minutes, but they will have to earn a spot.

"There may even be some freshmen that will get some time, but it won't be early, I think it will be later on in the year," Coach Costin said.

2018-19 Malta Mustangs

Varsity Schedule

VARSITY

DATE DAY EVENT Time SITE

Nov. 19 Monday First Practice TBA Malta

Dec. 7-8 Fri.-Sat. Shelby Tournament TBA Shelby

Dec. 14 Friday Harlem 6:30 p.m. Harlem

Dec. 15 Saturday Poplar 4 p.m. Malta

Dec. 18 Tuesday Havre 7:30 p.m. Malta

Dec. 21 Friday Wolf Point 6 p.m. Wolf Point

Jan. 4 Friday Rocky Boy 7:30 p.m. Rocky Boy

Jan. 5 Saturday Roundup 5:30 p.m. Malta

Jan. 11 Friday Glasgow 6:30 p.m. Glasgow

Jan. 12 Saturday Shelby 4:30 p.m. Malta

Jan. 18 Friday Harlem 6 p.m. Malta

Jan. 19 Saturday Poplar 4 p.m. Poplar

Jan. 24 Thursday Wolf Point 6 p.m. Malta

Jan. 26 Saturday Havre 5:30 p.m. Havre

Feb. 1 Friday Rocky Boy 7:30 p.m. Malta

Feb. 2 Saturday Roundup 5:30 p.m. Roundup

Feb. 8 Friday Glasgow 6 p.m. Malta

Feb. 9 Saturday Shelby 5:30 p.m. Shelby

Postseason Tournaments

Feb. 14-16 Thurs.-Sat. Boys & Girls District Tourney Glasgow

Feb. 28 - Mar. 1 Thurs.-Sat. Boys Divisional Tourney Shelby

Mar. 7-9 Thurs.-Sat. Boys & Girls State Tourney MSU-Bozeman