Havre boys stumble in Livingston, Belgrade

It was a tough two-game stretch for the Havre High boys basketball team, and the end result was a short stay as the No. 1 team in the conference.

The Central A Blue Ponies entered the weekend as the No. 1 team, but dropped two conference road games. The Ponies are down but not out as they can still clinch the No. 3 spot later on down the road. And, if nothing else, the Ponies showed they are still contenders to make the state tournament as the Central A race proves to be a tight one.

Friday, the Livingston Rangers defeated the Ponies 63-55 in Livingston, evening the season series at 1-1. And Saturday, the Belgrade Panthers completed the regular season sweep over the Ponies with a 62-54 win in Belgrade.

Havre didn’t play its best game Friday, but to make things worse foul trouble hindered the Ponies' offense in a big way.

“On Friday we got into foul trouble. Dane Warp and Jase Kato both got in foul trouble and that really hurt us for scoring,” Havre High head coach Curt Leeds said. “I think that caused us to get too perimeter-oriented and we didn’t get enough points in the key. It is tough to lose two of your top players and still try to compete, but we just didn’t do a good enough job trying to get inside.”

Scoring inside has been a big strength of the Ponies this season. Working the ball inside-out through Kato and Kade Rismon gets the offense rolling, and without that the Ponies struggled. Kato finished with just two points and Warp had a season-low five. A four-point first quarter by the HHS offense also put the Ponies in hole they were unable to dig themselves out of.

Nate Rismon did help carry the load with a team-high 20 points, but without the double-double Warp has been averaging this season, the offense wasn’t quite up to the level it needed to be at. The Ponies had a great fourth quarter with 28 points, but ran out of time.

Facing Belgrade Saturday the Ponies played much better, but the Panthers still came out on top. The Panthers have a lot of athletic guards, and even with the Ponies stopping their top two scorers, Belgrade’s offense was hard to stop. The Havre defense held Trevor Mahn and Shiloh Christopher to eight points each, but Brayden Konkol stepped up in a big way with a game-high 23 points.

The Pony offense also looked much improved overnight. Kade Rismon led the way with 22 points, and Warp also bounced back with 21. Nate Rismon scored seven.

But the Ponies couldn’t overcome the 30-28 halftime deficit as the Rangers outscored the Ponies 32-26 over the final two frames.

“We played a lot better,” Leeds said. “We really bounced back after Friday’s loss. Belgrade is a physical team, but we held their two best scorers to less than 10 points each. But the boys played really hard and I think this showed us that we need to work on our man offense moving forward. Teams are going to start playing us more man with their defense, so that is something to work on moving forward.”

But, overall, the Ponies know both the Rangers and Panthers are talented foes, but are also beatable.

Havre has a win over the Rangers, and was also much improved against the Panthers the second time around. Belgrade defeated the Ponies by 16 points the first time around, but the Ponies cut the loss to eight-points Saturday. If the Ponies can continue to improve, they should be able to play for a state berth when the Central A tournament rolls around.

“We know we didn’t play our best against Livingston,” Leeds said. “If we play them again, we know we can beat them. And Belgrade, we have improved against them and we will be ready for them by tournament time. I would predict them to finish first now, and with a win over Lewistown we can secure at least third place, if not second place. We can still control our own destiny, and we know we will need to beat one of these two teams at divisionals if we want to get to state. We just have to keep working and keep fine-tuning.”

Havre is back in action Thursday when the Ponies travel to Great Falls to play the GFH Bison. The Ponies return home Saturday to face CMR.

Livingston 63, Havre 55

Havre 4 13 10 28 – 55

Livingston 14 7 18 24 - 63

Havre - Nate Rismon 20, Jon Faber 3, Dane Warp 5, Brian Smith 4, Michael Bakke 4, Nate Korb 3, Jase Kato 2, Kade Rismon 14.

Livingston - Nick Bragg 14, Garrett Scheigert 9, Connor Amsk 12, Jordan Lehrer 5, Colton Gavne 6, Chris Emter 6, Jory Overstreet 11.

Belgrade 62, Havre 54

Havre 15 13 11 15 – 54

Belgrade 17 13 13 19 - 62

Havre - Nate Rismon 7, Jonathan Faber 2, Dane Warp 21, Michael Bakke 2, Kade Rismon 22.

Belgrade - Trevor Mahn 8, Brayden Konkol 23, Brandon Stubbs 10, Ethan Turner 7, Shiloh Christopher 8, Keldon Lamb 2, Baxter Roys 4.