Tipoff: Malta, CMR await Havre boys

There is always plenty of mystery surrounding a growing basketball team at the beginning of a new season, but second-year head coach Curt Leeds is hoping to learn a lot about his slightly older Havre High squad this weekend.

The Central A Blue Ponies will begin regular season play with two road games this weekend. Tonight, the Ponies are in Malta to take on the Class B Malta Mustangs. And Saturday, the Ponies remain on the road to face the Class AA Rustlers of CMR in Great Falls. The Mustangs won back-to-back Class B state championships, but lost some top tier talent from a year ago. And the Rustlers are always tough coming out of the AA ranks, but also lost a lot of size from team that averaged almost 6-4 across the board last season.

Both contests will be tough, season-opening tests for the Ponies, but this first weekend of action is more about the Ponies than their opposition.

“It is kind of like last year, we are still focused on ourselves,” Coach Leeds said. “But we did take some time on Wednesday to watch some film on Malta and CMR from last year. I expect both teams to come out in a zone, but I think both teams will have to run it a little different than they did last year. And I think both teams are going to throw the house at us right away, and that is good for us, and we are excited for that. The kids are more prepared for the season compared to last year, and I think our experience will show.”

Malta’s press has been a very fast, up-tempo press over the years. But after losing athletes like Kendall Denham and Tucker Schye to graduation, the Mustangs aren’t quite the same program. Leeds thinks the press will be forced to sit back and not be as aggressive, while the offensive production will also be down without Denham’s outside shooting ability. Zach Handley, Troy Manoukian, and Jeremy Costin will handle most of the scoring opportunities.

CMR is the opposite. After housing a lot of big bodies last year, even at the guard position, the Rustlers’ press was slower, but effective. They used their size and reach to pester the defense, but lose some of that due to graduation. Instead, the CMR press will come out more up tempo, looking for turnovers to get the ball back in the hands of scorers like senior Jayse McLean.

The Ponies should be able to handle both pressure situations this weekend, and if they can, they look to get settled into their offense as well.

“Our boys know our press break now,” Leeds said. “It isn’t brand new information like it was last year, so they understand where the other players are going to be at on the floor. We had problems with the pressure last year, but I think this year we can handle it because we are more used to seeing it, and more used to running our press break.”

Offensively, the Ponies are picking up right where they left off a year ago.

Nate Rismon, Dane Warp, Jon Faber, and Brian Smith have the ability to score from all areas of the floor, but Leeds wants to get his big men, Jase Kato and Kade Rismon, involved inside early and often.

Havre’s defense will be key in getting the offense moving early. If the defense can limit the production of Malta and CMR, then the Ponies can transition smoothly into their offense. But there is some mystery around the Blue Pony defense as well, and this weekend is just what the coaching staff needs to critique where they stand early on in the season.

“Going against the junior varsity in practice gives an okay look at our defense,” Leeds said. “But facing these teams this weekend, our defense will get a really good look at where we are at and what we need to keep working on. We will watch film on these games next week, and we will really be able to nitpick exactly what needs to get better in our man and zone defensive looks.”

Tonight the Ponies face the Mustangs in Malta at 7:30 and on Saturday the Ponies face the CMR Rustlers in Great Falls. Tip for that game is set for 4:30 p.m.