News you can use
News you can use
Havre High's Peyton Filius, right, goes around a Belgrade defender during a Central A girls game last month in Havre. After visiting Conrad tonight, the Ponies return home to host Lewistown Saturday.
After starting the season 3-3 overall and 2-0 in conference play, the Havre High girls basketball program has a chance to pick up two more wins with one nonconference game at home, and one conference matchup on the road this weekend.
The tough schedule continues to throw talented teams at the Central A Blue Ponies, but Havre knows both games are winnable.
Tonight, the Ponies will face the Class B Conrad Cowgirls on the road in Conrad. Saturday, the Ponies will return home to the Havre High Gymnasium where they will face the conference rival Lewistown Golden Eagles. The Ponies are currently the No. 1 team in the Central A and will look to extend that lead with a win over the Eagles Saturday.
If the Blue Ponies can find a way to limit turnovers, then the likelihood of grabbing a win or two will greatly increase.
The turnover count climbed dangerously close to 50 in two nonconference games a week ago. The turnovers kept the Ponies from finding any kind of offensive groove, rare for a team that has a scorer in any player who steps on the floor, including Peyton Filius, Brandy Lambourne, Morgan Mazurkieiwcz, Tori Mazurkiewicz, Lacey Waid, Haley Ohm and Breck Don. Sophomore Dani Wagner has also earned increasing minutes and has proven she too can get to the hole and score at the varsity level.
Defensively, the Ponies have also proved to be dangerous. In their wins, the opposition hasn’t scored more than 40, but in the most recent losses, the Ponies have given up over 50 in each contest.
Havre can take several different forms with man and zone looks, as well as full- and half-court presses. If the Ponies can tighten up and close down the lanes, then they have what it takes to make teams struggle on the offensive end of the floor. The Cowgirls will look to get a lot of production out of Hayley Orcutt, Barringer and Morgan VanDyke. And facing the Eagles Saturday, the Ponies will have to limit Mikaela Olson above anybody else. The Eagles have more offensive tallent, but Olson is averaging nearly 12 points per game this year and will take advantage of any holes in the HHS defense.
Tonight, the Ponies will face the Cowgirls in Conrad at 7. Saturday, the Ponies will look to extend their Central A lead when they host Lewistown at 5 p.m. at the Havre High Gymnasium.
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