HHS girls thump Conrad, survive Lewistown

The Havre High girls basketball team is very good at winning the games they are supposed to win. And while that may have been more difficult this past weekend than normal, it doesn’t change the fact that the Blue Ponies took care of business with back-to-back wins over Conrad and Lewistown.

Havre opened the weekend Friday against Conrad inside the HHS gymnasium and despite a sluggish start by the favored Ponies, they were able to notch a 60-41 win over the Cowgirls.

Saturday, things got interesting for the Ponies, who ended up needing overtime to knock off Central A rival Lewistown, 53-48. The win improved Havre’s record to 5-2 overall and 3-0 in the Central A, with all three conference wins coming on the road.

“I don’t think that we played our best basketball this weekend, but that’s the life, you don’t always play your best. The important thing is that you hang in there and make the plays you need to at the end of the game to win,” HHS head coach Dustin Kraske said. “It’s a good thing that we are 3-0. It’s the best possible position we could be in after three games. But we still have a lot of work to do and a lot of things to improve on before we get to divisionals.”

Against the Cowgirls, the Havre defense played like its typical stingy self from start to finish, but the offense struggled out of the gate, going 3.5 minutes without a field goal. Then, Naomi Terry connected on a two to give HHS a 4-2 lead. A minute later, Ceyara Plante buried a 3-pointer to give the Ponies a 7-2 edge with 4:30 to go in the first quarter.

Despite being outmatched, Conrad hung tough and was within four points on the last possession of the first quarter, when Morgan Mazurkiewicz scored to give HHS a 12-6 advantage after one.

The two teams traded baskets twice to open the second quarter making the score 18-12 in favor of Havre, when Mazurkiewiz hit from beyond the arc to extend the lead to 21-12. After a bucket from Conrad’s Michaela DeBoo, Plante hit her second three of the half and the Ponies were up 24-14.

Yet, as much as Havre tried to separate from Conrad, the Cowgirls wouldn’t go away. And thanks to a 3-point play from Emily Harwood, the Pony lead was down to 31-23 at halftime.

The shot from Harwood came with 52 seconds left in the second quarter. Conrad would not get another bucket though until 31 seconds left in the game, a span of 16 minutes and 21 seconds. It was the second time this season the Ponies held a team without a field goal for longer than 14 minutes.

Spurred on by its suffocating defense, Havre put the game out of reach. Thanks to a pair of threes by Terry, six points from Dani Wagner and four from Mazurkiewicz, HHS outscored Conrad 15-3 in the third quarter to push the lead to 46-26, effectively putting the game on ice.

Wagner led all scorers for Havre with 16 points, while Terry and Mazurkiewicz each finished with 14. DeBoo notched 16 points of her own. Harwood added 14.

“We kind of struggled to get going offensively but our kids played really hard on defense, I mean really hard,” Kraske said. “We did bail them out with a lot of fouls, but I really loved the aggressiveness that our kids played with.”

After the win Friday over Conrad, the Ponies paid a visit to Lewistown and took down the Eagles in overtime for their second straight victory.

Havre jumped to a 15-8 lead at the end of the first quarter, but an 11-5 spurt in the second by Lewistown reduced the HHS lead down to 20-19 at halftime. In the third quarter, both teams scored 11 points and the Ponies maintained a 31-30 edge with eight minutes left in regulation.

In the fourth, the two teams went back-and-forth. For Havre, it was all about Lindsey Kudrna, who made some key baskets down the stretch to help the Ponies take a 41-39 lead late in the game.

“Lindsey had some big baskets for us down the stretch,” Kraske said. “She did a great job of just squaring up and being fundamental and scoring. We will be tough offensively if she keeps doing that for us.”

Clinging to a two-point lead in the final minute, Havre turned the ball over, giving Lewistown an opportunity to tie the game with just seconds left. The Eagles got the ball to Jaree Mane, who scored 17 points on the night, and she was able to bank in a 2-pointer as the buzzer sounded to send the game into overtime.

“I thought we did a good job defensively,” Kraske said. “Dani (Wagner) was right up in her face. She just shot right over her and she made it. It was a tough shot and credit to her for making it but I don’t think there was anything else we could have done defensively.”

With the scored tied up at 41-41 and the game headed to overtime, Mazurkiewicz took over. She scored early to give Havre a two-point edge, then made seven free throws in the last few minutes to ice the five-point win.

When it was all said and done, Mazurkiewicz scored a game-high 23 points. Wagner contributed with 11 and Kudrna had eight. In addition to the 17 points Lewistown got from Mane, Tara Olsen had 12 while Carley Carpenter had 10.

The Ponies will be back in action Friday when they host Browning. Then on Saturday they will pay a visit to Class B rival Rocky Boy.

Havre 60, Conrad 41

Conrad 6 17 3 15 – 41

Havre 12 19 15 14 – 60

Conrad – Gabby Drishinski 6, Maddie Hampton 5, Michalea DeBoo 16, Emily Harwood 14. Totals: 7 25-34.

Havre – Ceyara Plante 7, Dani Wagner 16, Morgan Mazurkiewicz 14, Naomi Terry 14, Rachel Majeres 2, Holly Purkett 3, Lindsey Kudrna 2, Kristen Nash 2. Totals: 21 10-14.

Three pointers – Drishinski 1, DeBoo 1, Plante 2, Wagner 2, Mazurkiewicz 1, Terry 2. Total fouls – Conrad 16, Havre 25. Fouled out – Drishinski.

Havre 53, Lewistown 47 OT

Havre 15 5 11 10 12 - 53

Lewistown 8 11 11 11 6 - 47

Havre - Ceyara Plante 3, Dani Wagner 11 Morgan Mazurkiewicz 23, Naomi Terry 6, Rachel Majeres 2, Lindsey Kudrna 8.

Lewistown - Jessica Kurdzerski 4, Tara Olson 12, Carley Carpenter 10, Lexie Anderson 7, Jaree Mane 17.