Ponies beat Cowgirls, Eagles

Often times, there is a distinct weekend or game in a prep basketball season that sets the tone for the rest of the season. That weekend could turn out to be this last one for the Havre High girls basketball team as the Blue Ponies played two very solid games.

Entering the weekend 3-3 overall, the Central A Blue Ponies had recorded some decent wins, but also lost some close matchups. And while fans have been waiting to see just what the team is capable of, wins over Conrad and Lewistown could just be the beginning.

Friday night, the Ponies defeated the Conrad Cowgirls 49-39 in Conrad, and Saturday the Ponies defeated the conference rival Lewistown Golden Eagles 68-35 at home. The Ponies are now 5-3 overall and 3-0 in conference play.

“It was a good weekend,” Havre’s Brandy Lambourne said. “It felt good to get our momentum going again after a couple of tough losses. And Conrad is always a really tough place to win, so that was good for us too.”

After the win Friday the Ponies returned home to treat the home crowed to one of their best performances of the season.

In the dominating win over Eagles there wasn’t much the Ponies did that didn’t go in their favor. The normally tight-knit defense did fluctuate in success, but that didn’t keep the offense from bursting onto the scene and taking over. The result was eight out of the 10 Ponies that took the floor getting on the scoreboard, as well as each of the 10 girls recording at least one assist by the end of the night. Morgan Mazurkiewicz led the way with her 19 points, while Lambourne followed with 15, and Peyton Filius followed with another 10. Tori Mazurkiewicz finished with nine, while Lacey Waid finished with six, Haley Ohm finished with four, Breck Don finished with three and Lindsey Kudrna finished with two.

Havre was also 8-of-9 from the free-throw line and knocked down a staggering 10 3-pointers. Morgan Mazurkiewicz had three 3-pointers to lead the team again.

“Offensively, we were very much in rhythm and played very well together., Havre High head coach Dustin Kraske said. “We were able to really space things out and make the extra pass to get the best shot. If anything got us going it was ours kids making one extra pass, passing up a good shot and getting a better shot. That was the difference in the game.

“And defensively,” Kraske added, “I think we went up and down a bit. Early we did some trapping, and when we rotated or switched into something else it wasn’t the same enthusiasm. Then we switched into something back and got that enthusiasm back, so it seemed like we just kept going up and down whenever we tried to switch things up or execute something differently.”

There were distinct times during Saturday’s matchup where the Ponies had to think fast and make on-the-go adjustments to the changing defense.

The Ponies were in a half-court zone look for the majority of the game, but worked on, as well as tweaked, things throughout the game. HHS jumped out to a 10-0 first quarter lead, but was outscored 8-5 in the final 3:15. HHS also gave up seven points in the first four minutes of the second quarter, but allowed just two points in the final four leading up to the half as they took a 33-17 lead. The trend continued for the Pony defense. Lewistown scored on four out of their first five possessions in the third quarter, but didn’t score in the final 5:19. And in the fourth quarter the Ponies gave up just nine total points for the third straight quarter, with just three of those Eagle points coming in the final 3:40 of the contest.

“Lewistown is a nice basketball team,” Kraske said, “but we made them play uncomfortable tonight and that caused us to have success. The score doesn’t mean much to me, they are a nice team and we know we will have our hands full when we play them down there, for sure.”

The win over Lewistown came after a win over the Cowgirls Friday night.

Both teams got off to a slow start with a combined 11-points in the first eight minutes, but as the Cowgirls continued to struggle, the Ponies’ offense went off. HHS held a healthy 22-15 lead at the break, but gained ground with 27-points in the second half. But the 10-point victory didn’t come before the Cowgirls tested Havre High.

“We fought our tails off to beat them,” Kraske said. “Conrad always plays hard, and playing in their gym is like playing here, the home team always just seems to play well. We were up at one point 16-points, but they made a run and kept clawing and clawing. Pretty soon we up just six, and our girls had to do a nice job down the stretch to pull away. We didn’t play our best basketball down there, but we played all right and it was a good win.”

Filius scored 18 points to lead the way, while Lambourne finished with 13 points. Ohm followed with six, and both Morgan Mazurkiewicz and Tori Mazurkiewicz finished with five-points each.

Havre travels to Browning Friday night before returning home to host the Rocky Boy Morning Stars Saturday night.

Havre 49, Conrad 39

Havre 5 17 14 13 - 49

Conrad 6 9 7 17 – 39

Havre – Breck Don 2, Brandy Lambourne 13, Morgan Mazurkiewicz 5, Peyton Filius 18, Tori Mazurkiewicz 5, Haley Ohm 6. Totals: 17 10-14.

Conrad – Taryn Erickson 9, hayley Orcutt 11, makayla Barringer 4, Michalea DeBro 2, Emily Harwood 6, Morgan VanDyke 7. Totals: 16 5-12.

Total fouls – Havre 15, Conrad 11. Fouled out – None. Three pointers – Lambourne 2, M. Mazurkiewicz 1, Filius 2, Erickson 1, Orcutt 1.

Havre 68, Lewistown 35

Lewistown 8 9 9 9 - 35

Havre 15 18 23 12 – 68

Lewistown – Mikaela Olson 4, Nicole Karhi 4, Jessica Kinzarski 9, Maddie Comes 4, Tara Olson 3, Michelle Monger 1, Jaree Mane 10. Totals: 15 5-6.

Havre – Breck Don 3, Brandy Lambourne 15, Morgan Mazurkiewicz 19, Lacey Waid 6, Peyton Filius 10, Tori Mazurkiewicz 9, Haley Ohm 4, Lindsey Kudrna 2. Totals: 25 8-9.

Total fouls – Lewistown 11, Havre 11. Fouled out – None. Three pointers – Olson 1, Mane 2, Don 1, Lambourne 2, M. Mazurkiewicz 4, Filius 2, T. Mazurkiewicz 1.