Blue Pony girls return to action tonight

The Havre High girls basketball team is young. And after three early games to start the season, the Blue Ponies used the two-week holiday break to get better.

Now, they will get a chance to see just good they are with challenging back-to-back games against Great Falls High and Malta.

Great Falls High, which lost to Havre twice last season, is off to a 3-1 start and will invade the HHS gymnasium tonight. The Ponies and Bison will get things started at 7. On Saturday, the Ponies will travel to Malta to take on the M-Ettes. That game will start at 5 p.m.

"We are excited to get out there and play," HHS head coach Dustin Kraske said. "I thought that we got better over the break. We took some fundamentals and I would like to think we got better in those areas. Things like passing, catching, handing the ball with pressure. We are a young team and I think I forget that sometimes and we really improved. We played a lot of 5-on-5 and I was really happy with how the team responded. So we are excited to get out there and measure ourselves against two really good teams."

The Bison come into Havre fresh off a 61-43 victory over Glacier High school. Great Falls has a slew of talented players led by Hannah Collins, Nora Klick and Gabby Fought.

"Great Falls High is a team that we aren't really familiar with," Kraske said. "They lost some players from a season ago. I know they graduated a couple kids and the only one we really know is (Nora) Klick. So they are kind of an unknown. They have kids that have been in their program but just have not had a lot of varsity experience. "

Havre, which opened its season with a loss against Malta, is another team that does not have a ton of varsity experience. Yet, the Ponies passed their first tests in Central A conference play against Livingston and Belgrade with flying colors.

The traditionally stingy Pony defense allowed an average of just 31.5 points per game in the two victories. The offense scored 54 against Belgrade and 57 against Livingston. Strong defense is the norm for Havre but consistent play on the offensive end will be the key to success this weekend.

Leading the way for the Pony offense has been Morgan Mazurkiewicz, who is averaging 16 points a game so far in her senior season. Mazurkiewicz was expected to score but the Ponies were waiting for others to emerge and two that have are Naomi Terry and Dani Wagner. Terry, a sophomore, knocked down three 3-pointers in wins over Belgrade and Livingston. She is averaging just less than 12 points a game this season. Wagner is averaging seven points per game but has a chance to play a bigger role on offense as the season progresses according to Kraske.

"We are trying to get Dani to play more selfishly," Kraske said. "And that's something she started to do over the break. Naomi also has started to get a lot more confidence in her game. She played really well over the break too and that was good to see."

After taking on Class AA rival Great Falls tonight, the Ponies will travel to Malta on Saturday and attempt to avenge a 62-41 loss to the M-Ettes to open the 2014-15 season.

As with the first meeting, Havre will have to deal with outstanding Malta sophomore Sophia Stiles, who had 12 points against HHS on Dec. 12. Stiles is the point guard for Malta and causes problems off the dribble. And while she is enough to worry about Havre must also pay close attention to Hailey Nicholson, who beat the Ponies for 20 points in the first game.

Kraske and the Ponies would love a win against both Great Falls High and Malta but when it comes right down to it, to him these games just don't matter as much as games in the Central A.

"We want to win and we want to get better, but the conference games are the ones we really emphasize," Kraske said. "But we view every game as an opportunity to go out and compete and get better. So we are looking forward to going out and playing two very good teams and seeing where we're at."

Havre and Great Falls will meet tonight inside the HHS Gymnasium at 7. Saturday the Ponies will take on Malta at 5 p.m.