GREAT FALLS — Before receiving the first-place plaque, and before hearing the final buzzer on Malta's seventh straight Northern B girls basketball divisional championship this past Saturday night in a 58-40 win over rival Glasgow, the M-Ettes were playing with heavy hearts.
"She'd be screaming in my face and hugging me and telling me that she loves me and proud of me," Malta senior Neva Jacobson said following Saturday's win at Shelby High School. "I feel like she lifts every single one of us up even when we're down. Like, we don't stay down — we just get picked back up really easily, so I think that's her doing it."
She, as Jacobson is describing, was her sister, Jessica Hould, who passed away on Feb. 27 following a battle with cancer. Hould was 32 years old.
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Hould's passing came only one day prior to Malta's District 2B championship game also against Glasgow, which had defeated the M-Ettes in both regular-season contests.
Jacobson said Jessica, or Jessy, was beside the team in that game, too.
"That's the reason we won that game, we did it for her," Jacobson said prior to Thursday's semifinal in Shelby. "We played together really well and we all wanted it so bad."
Jessy had been battling cancer for a couple of years. Jacobson said it started as cervical cancer and over time spread to Jessy's liver and kidneys.
"A couple weeks ago, it was at Stage 4, and like the doctors couldn't really do anything else about it," Jacobson said. "They just sent her home and there was a bunch of my family there that went to see her."
Jacobson made the trip to see Jessy in Texas, where she was living. It meant a lot to visit her, Jacobson said.
"I loved it," Jacobson said. "It was a perfect time to go and see her and not have to worry about playing basketball, which is unusual for me, because I'm always worried about that. But it was just nice to get away and go spend time with her and the rest of my family that I don't normally see that much."
When Jacobson returned for the 2B tournament, her teammates surprised her in a special way. Malta debuted their new teal warm-up shirts with the message of #TeamJessy on the back. Teal is the color to represent ovarian cancer awareness.
"I didn't know anything about that and neither did my family," Jacobson said. "We wore them for that game and she did get to watch that game, which was her last game that she got to watch. So, I'm very glad that she got to see us in those and we'll probably continue to wear those shirts and keep representing her and doing it for her."
Malta is 6-0 since debuting those new warm-ups. Assistant coach Shane Anderson, a family member of Jacobson's, reflected similar thoughts on the new shirts.
"That was pretty awesome," Anderson said. "That kind of showed the emotion ... after the win. ... It was all just surreal. Very cool moment for the family, and for Neva, and for the team, and for everybody."
Denvyr Tuss, one of Jacobson's fellow senior teammates, said the idea behind the shirts is to help Jacobson get through this tough time.
"We really wanted to come together and support," Tuss said. "We just try to find different ways to help Neva, especially, and her family rise through this difficult period. We're still doing anything we can to. She's our teammate and our sister for life."
Jacobson said she looked up to her sister a lot.
"I considered her one of my best friends," Jacobson said. "I talked to her about everything, she'd talk to me about stuff, too, so we just had a really close bond."
Since Jessy's passing, Jacobson said she's always thinking about her, especially when taking the court.
"Before every game I pray that God keeps us safe and protected throughout the game," Jacobson said. "Recently, I've just been saying like, help my sister lift us up and help God lift us up, too. So that really helps out, I think."
Malta now carries a district and divisional title, a 20-4 record, and an extra teammate in spirit in to the upcoming Class B state tournament in Bozeman, where the M-Ettes begin play Thursday against Big Timber at Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. Tipoff will be at 3:30 p.m.
