M-ettes end Harlem's perfect record

The Malta M-ettes picked up a big win on Friday night in Malta, defeating the previously undefeated Harlem LadyCats 49-40 in the Malta High School Gymnasium.

"We just worked very hard and hustled for everything," M-ette guard Erica Smith told the PCN. "We knew we wanted this very bad, so we had to get it."

The M-ettes also defeated the Poplar Indians 50-31 in Poplar last Saturday, January 25, earning their first sweep of the season.

The M-ettes will have their hands full this weekend as the team is scheduled to face the Wolf Point Lady Wolves in Wolf Point on Thursday, January 30, at 5:30 p.m. The teams switched home games due to the floor not being ready in Wolf Point during their first clash on Friday, January 3. On that day the M-ette defeated Wolf Point 70-52.

Malta will then travel to Havre to face the Havre Blue Ponies, who defeated the M-ettes 39-30 in Malta on Saturday, January 4. The game is set to start at 5:30 p.m., after the conclusion of the boys varsity game.

In Malta's 49-40 win over Harlem, the M-ette defense stifled the LadyCat offense in the first half, allowing only eight points in the first quarter, and one point in the second quarter, during that span Malta had scored 20, putting them up 20-9 at halftime.

"We knew we couldn't come out here thinking that we were just going to lose but we also couldn't come out here thinking oh, we are going to win," M-ette guard Kelbee Denham said. "The fact that we lost to them by one point (last time) just fired us up more."

Smith and freshman Kylee Nelson led Malta offensively with twelve points each. Smith also had six steals, five rebounds, and four assists. Nelson had six rebounds, three steals, and three assists. Allie Kunze had nine points and eight rebounds and Justine Lamb had six points and four rebounds.

Malta forced 18 turnovers and turned the ball over 14 times. Malta also won the battle of the boards outrebounding Harlem 34-28, which included 14 second-chance points on 14 offensive rebounds.

Malta also received a boost from their bench that scored 12 points.

The M-ettes had a tough task trying to defend point guard L'Tia Lawrence that night. Lawrence had 11 points.

"We had to get out on her, of course, but also stay on my toes because she is not just an outside threat, she is also an inside threat," Nelson said.

Though the M-ettes had defeated Poplar earlier this season, the team had no intention of underestimating their foe.

"We definitely cannot underestimate them," Denham said. "We beat them by quite a bit when they were in Malta but as Coach said, we have to wake up tomorrow because we have a long bus ride."

Denham also said that the team wanted to approach the game against Poplar in the same way they did against Harlem.

In Malta's 50-31 win over Poplar, the M-ettes were led by Kunze who had eight points, three rebounds, and two assists. Nelson had seven points and three steals. Addy Anderson had seven points and three rebounds off of the bench. Denham had six points, going 6-for-6 from the charity stripe. Kylie Hunter and Smith each had four steals.

The M-ettes outrebounded Poplar 33 to 22, racking up 16 offensive boards for 18 second-chance points. Malta scored 22 points off of 23 turnovers.

The M-ette defense was dominant holding Poplar to six points in the first quarter, seven in the second, and six points in the fourth quarter.