Denham talks about first college season at MCC

Former Malta M-ette basketball standout Kelbee Denham stopped by the Phillips County News office to talk about her first season of collegiate basketball.

The 2020 Malta High School graduate is a shooting guard for the Miles City Community College Pioneers, who nearly finished the 2020-21 basketball season undefeated, and they went on to win hardware in the postseason.

Denham, daughter of Morris Denham and Stephanie (Fried) Denham of Malta, shared her thoughts about the year.

"It was very eventful," Denham said. "At the beginning, it was long because we could only practice for the first four months."

"Those practices started at 6 a.m.", Denham continued, also saying that the year started to become fun when the games started.

Denham had a productive year during her freshman season as a Pioneer, helping the team go 24-2 and win the 2021 National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Region XIII Title on Monday, April 5.

After the Region XIII tourney, the Pioneers went on to the 2021 NJCAA Divison I National Tournament and picked up the first National Tournament win in the team's history.

Though she served primarily as a role player throughout the season, Denham started six games for the Pioneers after the team's starting shooting guard was injured. Her first start was on February 4, against Williston State College, who recruited her during her senior season at Malta High School. She had eight points and four rebounds.

She said that she was nervous at first, but after a couple of minutes, her mindset changed.

"Starting with the starting five was amazing and it really gave me a chance to show my coach what I could do," Denham said. "I love it. It was awesome."

Denham rewarded her team with a few games in double-digit scoring and multiple games with multiple steals.

Her highest scoring game was against Dakota College at Bottineau. Denham scored 20 points and knocked down 5 treys in the process. She also had five rebounds and three assists.

"Most of the assists were from Rebekah Dallinger," Denham said. "She just gave me the ball and I knocked down the first one. She just kept feeding me throughout the rest of the game and I kept knocking them down."

The next night, Denham hit five more treys and had a total of 15 points against the same opponent.

Denham had two or more steals in six of the next seven games.

Regular season games were confined to playing conference games, mostly in Montana and North Dakota, due to the conference trying to slow the spread of COVID-19.

"I felt like it did limit us because we really did have a good team," Denham said. "It would've been nice to play other teams but we still did well."

The Pioneers were undefeated for 21 straight games, until the final game of the regular season, as the team fell to Williston State 68-63 on March 25.

"There was a lot of pressure and we had targets on our back," Denham said of the team's 21-game win streak. "I kind of feel like halfway through the season, we kind of got complacent."

She said that losing the last game of the season gave the team a push that they needed.

"It gave us fuel," Denham said.

The team bounced back in the Region XIII tournament, earning revenge in the opening game against Williston State, winning 91-73 on April 1.

"We really focused on starting the game how we did (other games) at the beginning of the season," Denham said. "Be relentless, don't give up, and keep pushing them. If we have the lead, take the lead further because it is the playoffs. We just needed to prove who we were again."

The team later won the Region XIII Title game 85-41 over Dawson Community College. Their National Tournament win was over Gulf Coast State College. The score was 76-72. Their last game was a 72-55 loss in the second round to Trinity Valley Community College. Trinity Valley took second place at the tournament.

Denham played alongside the NJCAA National Player of the Year Rebekah Dallinger of Sydney, Australia, who averaged an NCJAA Division 1 leading 25.8 points per game.

Denham said that she and Dallinger were good friends off and on the court and explained what playing with Dallinger was like.

"She was an awesome player, who had great court sense, a high-IQ and she knew what to do and when to do it," Denham said. "She always helped us with our game as well. She was an amazing person all around."

After her stellar showing in 2021, Dallinger signed with the Kansas State Wildcats, a Division 1 program.

Like Dallinger, many of Denham's teammates have either graduated or moved on to other colleges. Denham is one of two athletes left on the 2021-22 roster.

The team will also be with a new head coach. Coach Taylor Harris has accepted the head coach position at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo. Denham shared her thoughts on the team's new Head Coach Darin Spence.

"He is going to be amazing," Denham said. "He has nine years of coaching D-I schools, a couple in D-II, and he has coached junior college teams before, so he will be amazing."

When asked about the jump from high school to college, Denham explained that most conditioning came with the intensity of practice. The team did ladder sprints twice a month.

"I felt that the aggressiveness was a big difference for me and that made me improve," Denham said. "Confidence was a big thing too. You have to go in there, knowing what you are doing, knowing the plays, and you have to be prepared."

She shared how being an M-ette has prepared her for this chapter of her life.

"Being a Malta M-ette really taught me how to be a good teammate and be grateful for the small community stuff," Denham said. "Miles City is also a small community. It is really awesome because it feels like home and that had really helped me to connect to my teammates to build bonds and relationships."