M-ettes Cruise Past Harlem, defeat Wolf Point

The Malta M-ettes basketball team picked up a pair of wins over 2B opponents last weekend. The team is currently 4-0, with two games left on the calendar year.

The M-ettes defeated the Harlem Wildcats 72-27 last Friday, December 16, in Malta's first home game of the season. Malta then beat Wolf Point 56-43 at Wolf Point High School on Saturday, December 17, in Wolf Point.

The M-ettes will face the Havre Blue Ponies, who have won the Class A title two seasons in a row and four out of the past five seasons. The game is set to start at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, December 20, in Havre. So far Havre is 1-2 this season

The M-ettes will also face the Glasgow Lady Scotties, who have been struggling so far this season and have an 0-5 record. That game is set to be played in Glasgow on Thursday, December 22, at 8 p.m.

The M-ettes posted a dominant 72-27 win over Harlem last Friday. Starting the first Malta home game of the shot-clock era with a 17-0 run. They outscored the LadyCats 23-3 in the first quarter.

"We really focused on being aggressive and coming out strong," senior co-captain Brylee French said. "Not having any mercy for anything. We just kept pushing and giving it to them."

The M-ettes were led by senior co-captain Allison Kunze who scored 20 points, and had seven rebounds, three steals, and three assists.

Fellow senior Addy Anderson had 15 points and four assists. Freshman Denvyr Tuss had 10 points, eight rebounds, and one block. Freshman Neva Jacobson scored eight points and had four steals and six rebounds. Senior Madison Williamson had eight points and five steals.

To round out the score, Elly Anderson had six points, Kelbee Nelson had three points, and Giona Lamb had two points.

The M-ettes outrebounded Harlem 33 to 15. Malta also had 16 steals and forced 20 turnovers. The M-ettes had 27 points off of turnovers, and 31 second chance points.

"I think we are playing strong because we are ready to redeem ourselves at the State (tournament)," Kunze said. "We are hungry, we are ready. We are ready to play Wolf Point in another conference game. We are going to keep going strong."

Prior to the game, Kunze said that she believed that the Lady Wolves are one of the stronger teams in the 2B District and that if they started off strong, they could have a pretty good game.

The M-ettes led 28-23 at halftime against the Wolves, in their closest game of their 2022-23 campaign thus far. The M-ettes were able to pull away in the third quarter, outsourcing Wolf Point 17-8. The Lady Wolves made a late push but ultimately the M-ettes won 56-43.

Williamson led the effort with 17 points, many of which were generated off of her six steals. She also had six rebounds.

Kunze had 13 points and nine rebounds. Anderson had nine points and four steals. Jacobson had eight points, three steals and three assists. French had five points and four rebounds. Tuss had three rebounds and two points, and Giona Lamb had two points and two rebounds.

Malta forced 27 turnovers in the win, and scored 12 points off of those turnovers.