Blue Pony girls bounce back to beat CMR

For the last couple of weeks, the Havre High girls basketball team has blown out most of its competition. But the Blue Ponies know how to win close games, too.

This season, the Ponies have been involved in three games settled by 10 points or less. After Saturday night’s contest at the CMR Fieldhouse in Great Falls, that number has increased to four. The Class A’s No. 5-ranked Ponies defeated the Class AA CMR Rustlers 57-56 Saturday, improving to 10-4 on the season.

But it nearly took everything the Ponies could throw at the Rustlers to get the win. In the non-league matchup there were 14 lead changes. The game was also all tied up on 12 separate occasions, while neither team ever held a lead larger than six points. It was a tight, neck-and-neck battle from start to finish, but all that matters is the final score, a one-point victory for the Ponies.

“CMR has a nice team,” Havre High head coach Dustin Kraske said. “We went on a nice little run there, but I also think we handled it well when CMR fought back. We were able to make some plays down the stretch, and our kids really did a nice job.”

With the lead changes and constant ties, no lead was ever a safe lead.

The Ponies saw their 30-27 halftime margin quickly turn into a 42-42 tie heading into the fourth and final quarter. The Ponies were able to outscore the Rustlers 15-14 in the final eight minutes, just enough to earn a season sweep against CMR.

Havre’s defense has been tough the last two outings, allowing just 33 and 16 points by the opposition. But CMR was able to rally for a nice scoring total with a lot of movement and key rebounds.

“They rebounded really well and they ran quite a bit of pick and rolls,” Kraske said. “I thought we defended that well. But our second rotator was a little slow and we had a tough time on the backside board or on the extra pass. We did struggle with that, and that gave CMR a bunch of baskets.”

Ashlee Atchison led the Rustlers with 16 points, while Taylor Edwards followed with 11. Kaydee Parsons finished with nine. Not to be outdone, Peyton Filius paced the Ponies with a game-high 21 points, 15 coming in the first half. Morgan Mazurkiewicz added 16 and Brandy Lambourne finished with nine.

“We found the shooters, we found the kids that were ready to catch and shoot,” Kraske said. “They did a nice job with their zone defense, but we would get two kids to guard us and kick for an open shot, or we screened for shots, and we moved the ball side to side and into the high post. But they all hit timely shots, and our three guards really played well. Not to take anything away from our other kids, because they all played well. It took all eight of our girls that played to get that win.”

Friday, the Ponies will host one of the greatest teams in Montana basketball history in Class B Fairfield at 7 p.m. Friday is also senior night. But Saturday the Ponies will face the conference rival Lewistown on the road.

Havre 57, CMR 56

Havre 16 14 12 15 - 57

CMR 14 13 15 14 - 56

Havre – Breck Don 1-3 0-0 3, Brandy Lambourne 4-9 0-1 9, Morgan Mazurkiewicz 5-10 3-6 16, Peyton Filius 7-19 2-2 21, Tori Mazurkiewicz 1-5 4-4 6, Haley Ohm 1-2 0-0 2. Totals: 19-56 9-13.

CMR – Kaydee Parsons 3-7 0-0 9, Ashlee Atchison 5-12 6-9 16, Taylor Edwards 5-9 1-2 11, Sammy Pietrykowksi 1-1 0-0 2, Maggie Reilly 0-5 3-4 3, Maddy Gregoire 0-3 1-2 1, Darby Gollaher 3-5 0-0 6, Maddy Watkins 3-5 2-2 8. Totals: 20-49 13-21.

Total fouls – Havre 17, CMR 15. Fouled out – none. 3-pointers – Don 1, Lambourne 1, Morgan Mazurkiewicz3, Filius 5, Parsons 3.