One Nation, Under God
One Nation, Under God
M-ettes Feature 17 High School Athletes
The 2023-24 Malta M-ettes: Back row left to right: Elly Anderson, Addison Ulrich, Macey Blunt, Neva Jacobson, Kelbie Nelson, Giona Lamb, Denvyr Tuss, Kendall Clausen, Emree Stuart, Brooklynn Knowles, Caitlyn Wilson, and Kylie Bishop. Front left to right: Renzey Raymond, Emma Ereaux, Danny Smith, Tailynn Wilke, and Caitlyn Langford. Not pictured Manager Brittney Sorlie. Photo by Malta High School.
M-ette Kelbie Nelson shoots a three pointer at the Shelby Classic last weekend. Photo by Mike Bashor.
The Malta M-ettes basketball team has some big shoes to fill this season as they graduated a productive senior class in 2023.
The team will be without graduated seniors Addy Anderson, Allison Kunze, Brylee French, and Maddie Williamson.
Malta does welcome back a few returning faces including their lone returning starter Denvyr Tuss, a sophomore who played in the post.
"As our lone returning starter she will be counted on for a lot of defense and rebounding as well as offensively," Coach Hammond said. "Denvyr gives us a good post presence and had 197 rebounds and led us in free throw percentage last year."
Neva Jacobson came off of the bench last season as a sixth-man, and given her talent, she logged a lot of minutes.
"Neva has been doing well with a lot of the ball handling and defensive pressure," Coach Hammond said.
Senior Elly Anderson also saw an uptick in minutes in 2023 and will be starting this season.
"We'll look to Elly to give us some good defensive pressure and an outside shooting threat," Coach Hammond said.
Sophomore Kendall Clausen and junior Kelbie Nelson will round out the starting lineup for Malta.
"Kendall and Kelbie are playing well at the three and four spots," Coach Hammond said. "Both shoot well and both are versatile enough to work under the basket as well."
The team also welcomes back seniors Addison Ulrich and Giona Lamb, a duo that coach Hammond said have been playing well.
"Addison gives us good defensive pressure and Giona has been rebounding well and passing very well," he said.
As far as underclassmen, Coach Hammond said Malta has a strong upcoming group.
"Out of our 17 players 11 are sophomores and freshmen," Coach Hammond said. "I'm really excited about these upcoming classes as well."
Though the M-ettes haven't gotten into utilizing eighth grade athletes in their first weekend of play, to fill out the underclassmen roster, four eighth graders are invited to tryouts in the near future.
"They had a great year and there's a good class there," Coach Hammond said.
In Malta's 52-46 win over Belt, the M-ettes were led by Tuss, who had 17 points. Anderson had 13 points. Nelson had 10 points. Jacobson and Emree Stuart both had six points.
Malta outscored the Huskies 16-5 in the first quarter and kept pace with the Huskies in the second, as both teams added 12 to their tally. The score at halftime was 28-17. Belt climbed back into the game in the third by outpacing Malta 19-12. Malta held on to their lead scoring 12 points in the fourth quarter while giving up 10.
The M-ettes fell behind early in their 56-32 loss to Chinook. Chinook outpaced Malta throughout the game, outscoring them 20-5 in the first quarter, 8-15 in the second quarter, 11-16 in the third quarter, and 8-14 in the fourth quarter.
Tuss led Malta with nine points. Jacobson had eight points, Nelson had seven points, Clausen had three points, Anderson had two points, Stuart had two points, and Caitlin Wilson had one point.
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