M-ettes sweep Lady Wolves

The Malta M-ettes basketball team defeated the Wolf Point Lady Wolves 50-35, on Saturday, January 22, in Malta. The team was scheduled to face Harlem on Friday, January 21, but the game was postponed due to COVID cases in Blaine County.

With several games being postponed around the Hi-Line, including Malta's game against Harlem, scheduled for Friday, January 21, the crowd featured athletes and coaches from Dodson, North Country, and Harlem.

The game against Wolf Point served as Malta's Senior Night. That night, Justine Lamb was honored. A halftime show featured the Little M-ette Cheerleaders, a group consisting of girls from around Malta.

"I just wanted to play my hardest and support all of the girls," M-ette Captain Lamb told the PCN. "I had a whole bunch of confidence in every single one of (my teammates) and was hoping to get this win. We played really hard and really good."

Maddie Williamson, a junior, expressed her thoughts on the crowd that was present.

"It was a lot of fun," Williamson said. "I am glad that it was senior night and that our stands were filled. I feel like, with more of a crowd, we play better, and we play better as a team."

Williamson also said that the team tries hard to give each other better scoring opportunities when the crowd is large.

Malta was led by Allison Kunze who had 13 points, eight rebounds, and three steals. Addy Anderson had 12 points, six rebounds, and four assists. Maddie Williamson had 11 points, nine rebounds, and three steals. Lamb had eight points, eight rebounds, and two steals. Aubri Werk had three points and five rebounds, and Brylee French had three points.

"I think our defense was on," Williamson said after the win. "We did way better than last time that we played them in Wolf Point. We were hoping to beat them by a little more than we did in Wolf Point and play better and I think that we did."

Malta outscored the Lady Wolves 16-5 in the first quarter, 12-7 in the second quarter, and 13-12 in the third quarter. Wolf Point had 11 to Malta's nine points in the fourth.

Malta had 42 rebounds to Wolf Point's 24. Malta had more turnovers than Wolf Point, 17-to-14, but Malta scored more points off of their extra possessions 21-to-10.

The M-ettes are scheduled to play Glasgow at Malta High School on Thursday, January 27, at 6 p.m. They were scheduled to play Havre in Havre on Tuesday, January 25, at 6 p.m. Information on that game will be featured in next week's PCN.

The M-ettes will play the Harlem Lady Wildcats at 5 p.m. on Monday, February 7.

Malta has now had to postpone two games this season, the first, a game against Roundup. Lamb was asked how that has affected the team.

"It's been kind of weird," Lamb said. "But we just move on to the next game. We don't really think about missing a game. We move on and keep going with the season."