Blue Pony girls hit the road before taking on Morning Stars Saturday

The tough games keep coming for the Havre High girls basketball team, but so should the wins.

Last weekend, the Central A Blue Ponies seemed to hit full stride with wins over Conrad and Lewistown. Now headed into another regular season weekend, the Ponies (3-0,5-3) will face two more talented programs.

Conference games on the road make a tough matchup even tougher in the Central A. But the Ponies will look to continue their dominance over conference opponents tonight in Browning when they take on the Indians. The load doesn’t lighten too much when the Ponies return home on Saturday either, hosting the Class B Rocky Boy Morning Stars at the Havre High Gymnasium.

Saturday’s matchup has all the makings of an instant rivalry, but the Ponies are focused on the most meaningful game of the two — their matchup with the Indians.

“We are focusing on our conference game on the road,” Havre High head coach Dustin Kraske said. “It is our first one of the season (on the road) and we are pretty excited to get over there and play. Browning is a nice basketball team, they are well coached, and they play hard, and always do a good job. But it is a tough place to win, so we have prepared in practice to play the best we can.”

Browning is always pushing for one of the top spots in the conference, and the Indians do so with a number of talented guards that can run the floor and score from all over. The Indians are currently right in the middle of the Central A pack, but they have a talented scorer in Tiera Gilham, who’s averaging 15 points per game and more than five rebounds per game. But Chelsey St. Goddard returns for the Indians and is pitching in more than seven-points per game so far this season. It is no secret that if a defense can’t keep up, the Indians can put up plenty of points, and can do so in a hurry. The Indians are averaging just over 55 points per game, and have posted more than 60-points five different times.

Haley Ohm’s presence inside could be crucial for Havre. If the Indians are held to one shot opportunity on an offensive possession with Ohm dominating the boards, then the Ponies can get transition quicker and smoother into their own offense.

It is a Blue Pony offense that isn’t afraid to get out and run themselves. With a slew of speedy guards the Ponies can get double digit scoring from Lacey Waid, Morgan Mazurkiewicz, Tori Mazurkiewicz, Peyton Filius and Brandy Lambourne. HHS is averaging just under 50 points per game, but the offense is coming off a win last weekend where it posted 68 against Lewistown.

The Ponies will look to keep that offensive production rolling in both games this weekend. The more they move the ball, the better that offense gets.

“In my opinion, when you play Browning they try to make you play faster than what you want,” Kraske said. “Sometimes you maybe take the first shot available instead of the first best shot available, so that is going to be our focus. When we get in positions to score, we don’t need to take the first shot, but the best shot. We need to find the open kid and make the extra pass, our kids have done that well in practice and I would anticipate they will continue to do that.”

What the Ponies will see on Saturday out of the Morning Stars will look a lot like what they see tonight out of the Indians. Only the Morning Stars have been more boom or bust this season.

Housing just three seniors and one junior on the roster, the Morning Stars have six underclassmen earning ample playing time. Senior Chanal Standing Rock, who played her sophomore year with the Blue Ponies, leads the way with her more than 20 points per game. She scored 40 against Harlem last month. Jude The Boy, Kylee Raining Bird, and 5-5 freshman Minnie The Boy also help carry the load on a team that can score in a hurry, but has also had their share of struggles this season.

“It will be nice to play a team that we aren’t familiar with,” Kraske said. “We are familiar with Chanal Standing Rock because she played in our program two years ago, but besides that we won’t even see any game film until after our Browning game. It will be a good opportunity four our team to just get better.”

Tonight the Ponies are in Browning to play the Indians at 7, and Saturday night, the Ponies and Morning Stars begin their new rivalry at 5 p.m. at the HHS gymnasium.