Powerful Malta bests Havre High girls

When the Havre High girls basketball team and Malta get together, there is always plenty of hype, only Saturday inside the HHS gymnasium, it was the M-Ettes, not the Blue Ponies who lived up to it.

Malta came into Saturday’s game with a six-game winning streak over Havre and after a 44-35 win over the Ponies, it's now extended to seven for the two-time defending Class B state champions.

“I thought that defensively we had a pretty good game plan, especially in the first half,” HHS head coach Dustin Kraske said. “But offensive put backs really hurt us. We also missed some shots that we normally make, but Malta is a really good team, and we will watch from film and learn from it.”

Both teams, which have a penchant for defense, came out playing hard on that end of the floor and early on, points of any kind were hard to come by. Yet, Sophia Stiles, who is committed to play for the University of Montana, scored back-to-back buckets to give Malta a 6-0 lead. Havre got its first bucket at the 3:15 mark of the first quarter, as Naomi Terry connected on a 3-pointer. Kyndall Keller also scored early for the Ponies, who trailed 9-5 after one.

The second quarter was similar to the first. Yet, as Kraske alluded to, Malta scored four second-chance points early in the stanza to go up by as much as eight. However, a steal and score from Kaylee Nystrom and another hoop from Keller, got Havre within six, 17-11 at the half.

The third quarter, was when Malta separated itself and it did so with defense, along with some outstanding play from Stiles. While holding the Ponies without a field goal for the entire third quarter, Stiles scored nine points. The M-Ettes as a team outscored HHS 17-1 and took a 34-12 lead into the fourth quarter.

But in the final stanza, Malta showed no let up. Early in the period, Jada Nicholson dove for a ball heading out of bounds and threw it up the floor, where it found Stiles, who made an acrobatic layup and was fouled in the process. She converted the 3-point play, which capped a 22-1 Malta run.

“I really liked our patience there in the first half,” Kraske said. “But they made some adjustments at halftime and we should have coached them up better.”

Keller finally ended Havre’s field-goal drought with a trey at the 6:21 mark. The 3-pointer was the first make from the field for HHS since 1:14 left in the first half.

“The second half, we gave up some offensive rebounds and it kind of got out of hand,” Kraske said. “I didn’t think we attacked them as well as we could have. Malta is good defensively, CMR is good defensively and Fairfield is good defensively. So you have to be able to earn it so to speak.”

Stiles was the high scorer in the game with 19 points. Terry and Marca Herron both led the Ponies with nine points; Keller pitched in with seven. Havre is now 10-3 on the season. HHS will travel to Fairfield Friday for a non-conference showdown, before returning home to host Lewistown Saturday.

“I am not sure our kids understand just how good they can be,” Kraske said. “I think there are a lot of kids that would love to get a chance to play with this team, with this particular group of kids and I don’t think that we are taking advantage of that.”

Malta 44, Havre 35

Malta 9 9 17 10 - 44

Havre 5 6 1 22 - 35

Havre - Naomi Terry 9, Marca Herron 9, Kyndall Keller 7, Kaylee Nystrom 5, Rien Olsen 3, Kyie Verploegen 2.