Malta Mustangs Earn District Title, Defend Homecourt at Northern B

The Malta Mustangs Basketball Team won their first 2B District Championship since 2021 in Wolf Point, as they defeated the Poplar Indians 55-45 in the 2B title game on Saturday, February 17.

To reach the championship game, Malta defeated the Fairview Warriors 67-55 in the semifinals on Thursday, February 15.

Malta High School will host the 2024 Northern B Divisional Tournament starting on February 22. The tourney will conclude on Saturday, February 24, unless there is a need for a challenge game. If a challenge game is needed for second place, the location will be determined by the MHSA Executive Director and the game will be played on Monday, February 26, at 6 p.m. Only two teams from the Northern B will move on to the State B Tournament scheduled to start in Billings on Thursday, March 7.

The Mustangs will face the Chinook Sugarbeeters in the opening round of the Northern B Divisional on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Chinook enters the tournament as the fourth seed from the 1B District Tournament. The Beeters fell 70-54 to the Shelby Coyotes in the third place match.

Chinook lost their opening game to the eventual 1B champion Fairfield Eagles, but the Sugarbeeters defeated the Conrad Cowboys 60-39 in the opening round of consolations of the 1B Tourney, and then went on to edge Rocky Boy 69-67 in the consolation semifinals.

Cut Bank will enter divisionals as the 1B's runner up after falling 45-42 to Fairfield in the championship game last Saturday night.

Fairview, who Malta defeated in the 2B District Tournament Semifinals will enter the Northern B as the third seed from 2B after they defeated the Glasgow Scotties 46-35 last Saturday in the consolation finals.

In Malta's Championship game, junior Bohdi Brenden led the Mustangs with 17 points, three rebounds, and two steals. Junior Mason Simanton had 11 points on a perfect 5-5 night shooting from the field. He also had six rebounds, one steal, and one block.

Senior Carson Ottinger had nine points. Junior Stockton Oxarart had seven points.

Oxarart was asked how it felt to be back on the court.

"It feels great," he said. "I'm just glad I am finally out here with my teammates. Finally getting back into the groove. It's awesome."

Junior Treyton Wilke had seven points and seven rebounds. Dawson Hammond, a sophomore, had four points and four rebounds.

Hammond was asked about the win, which was the first district championship for this Mustang group.

"It was alright," Hammond said. "We have a divisional championship under our belt. That one was better but this one is one to remember as well."

He was also asked about the team's key to victory.

"We came out pretty slow and then we started playing how we usually play," Hammond said. "We caught our rhythm and came back and won, just like we were supposed to."

The Mustangs fell behind early, with Poplar leading 9-2 in the first quarter, before a putback bucket by Simanton in which he was fouled and converted the free throw. The score was 9-5. The Mustangs chipped away at Poplar's lead in the second quarter and eventually outpaced the Indians 16-8 and went into halftime up 21-17. Malta was able to expand their lead to 34-26 by the conclusion of the third quarter and led by as much as 12 in the fourth quarter. Malta outscored Poplar 21-19 in the fourth quarter.

The Mustangs were 16-of-29 (55.2%) from two point range and 5-of-15 (33.3%) from three point range. Malta was 8-of-11 (72.7%) from the free throw line. Malta scored 11 points off of the turnovers that they forced, but the team lost the turnover margin with 17 turnovers of their own. Malta had 18 personal fouls and Poplar had 17.

In Malta's win over Fairview, Wilke led the team with 19 points and four assists. Brenden had 16 points, five assists, five steals, and three rebounds. Hammond had 13 points and four steals. Duke Williamson had 12 points, six rebounds, and three steals. Oxarart had three points, Ottinger had two points, and Simanton had two points.

"We just played as a team and worked hard," Oxarart said. "We always come together in the end and always come out with a win."

Malta was 24-of-32 (75%) from two point range and 3-of-16 (18.8%) from three point range. The Mustangs made 10-of-11 (90.9%). Malta scored 22 points off of the 19 turnovers that they forced. The team also had 44 points in the paint and 16 points in transition. The Mustangs had nine person fouls and Fairview had 11.

Wilke was asked what the team could improve on as they prepare to host the divisional tournament.

"We gotta come out on all cylinders right away and not wait until the second half like we did tonight," Wilke said. "We have to win the hustler game and be the hardest working team. We are going to win every game that we play if we do that."

Though this group was the runner up at state last season, they hadn't earned a district tournament title until last Saturday. Wilke was asked how it felt.

"It feels good," Wilke said. "Mr. Handley always talks trash to us about not getting one, and now we finally got one, so he can't talk trash to us anymore.