Bison trample Blue Ponies in the corral

For over a quarter of play in the first half, the Havre High boys basketball team was in charge of its non-conference game against Great Falls High. But early in the second quarter, Lucas Vining took control away from the Blue Ponies and from that point neither he, or the Bison ever looked back.

The Blue Ponies were looking to avoid a season sweep at the hands of GFH Thursday night inside the HHS gymnasium but Vining and the Bison had other ideas and downed Havre by the score of 71-52.

The loss was the fourth in five games for the fourth-ranked Ponies, and dropped their overall record to 8-5 on the season.

"We just didn't do a very good job of playing defense," HHS head coach Curt Leeds said. "We didn't communicate very well and we didn't do a good job of keeping our man in front of us. And they have some really talented kids. We just could not stop Vining and (Matt) Wyman and that was the difference in the game."

Early on Havre did a great job of defending Vining and held him scoreless in the first quarter as the Ponies jumped out to an 8-2 advantage after 3-pointers by Jerod Boles and Nate Rismon, as well as a two by Jase Kato. The Bison responded with an 8-2 spurt of their own that was capped off by a Jake Wetzel three that tied the game at 10-10. But Havre got consecutive baskets from Rismon and Dane Warp, which helped HHS grab a 14-12 lead at the end of the first.In the second, the lead got pushed to five after Boles connected from downtown for the second time in the game, and it looked like Havre was in prime position to pull the upset. That's when Vining and the Bison took over.

Vining scored five quick points to help the Bison take their first lead of the game and then with just over two minutes to play in the half, and GFH leading 28-27, he nailed his second trey of the quarter. Still, he was not done and as the final seconds of the first half ticked off the clock, he hit a fall away jump shot to send the Bison into intermission ahead 33-27.

Vining's run continued at the start of the third as he opened the second half with another make from beyond the arc, and after a score by Matt Wyman, the GHF lead had ballooned to 38-27 just 37 seconds into the third.

Havre responded with a triple from Warp and a third trey from Boles minutes later to finish an 8-2 run that cut the deficit down to 40-35 with 4:41 to go in the third. Yet, the Bison answered the Pony rally with baskets from Wyman and Brendan Howard to push the lead back to eight and by the end of the third it was 48-40 in favor the Bison.

Nate Korb scored to get the Ponies within six on Havre's opening possession in the fourth but the Bison roared back with six straight points, two from Vining and four from Wyman. Warp stemmed the tide briefly with a 3-pointer to get the lead down to nine at 54-45 with 6:34 left to play, but two more scores from Vining plus an old-fashioned 3-point play by the senior put the game out of reach at 60-47.

Vining finished the game with a total of 24 points, all of the them coming in the last three quarters. Yet, Wyman and Howard were just as good, as each compiled 18 points to help the Bison cruise to the easy victory.

Warp scored 19 points in the loss for the Ponies. Boles pitched in with 14 and Rismon added seven.

"Vining can shoot and then he and Wyman were just driving the ball on us at will," Leeds said. "We have to be able to stop that one-on-one. So that is something we need to work on. But they are a good team. They are strong, they are big, they are athletic, they can shoot and they can attack at the same time, so they are very tough to defend."

After being swept by GFH, the Ponies will be off today before setting their sights on a potential season sweep of CMR as HHS will travel to Great Falls Saturday in search of a second consecutive win over the Rustlers.

And despite Thursday’s loss, Leeds still has plenty of confidence in his group going forward and knows there is plenty of time to right the ship before the Central A Divisional tournament next month in Great Falls.

"Like I've always told our boys, we are looking to play our best basketball when it matters," Leeds said. "That's what we are looking forward to. We just want to make sure we don't go into divisionals playing mediocre basketball. We want to go into divisionals playing good basketball and executing and that's what we are going to continue working towards."

The Ponies and the Rustlers will do battle inside the CMR Fieldhouse Saturday night with tip-off time set for 4:30 p.m.

Great Falls High 71, Havre 52

GFH 12 21 15 23-71

Havre 14 13 13 12-52

Great Falls - Lukas Vining 10 1-1 24, Daniel Silverstein 0 0-0 0, Lester Johnson 1 0-0 2, Kody Torgerson 0 0-0 0, Brad Goodell 0 0-0 0, Jordan Wilkins 0 0-2 0, Matt Wyman 8 1-1 18, Riley Watt 0 0-0 0, Brendan Howard 7 4-7 18, Jake Wetzel 3 0-0 9, Keaton Burcham 0 0-0 0. Totals 29 6-11 71.

Havre - Jerod Boles 5 1-1 14, Nate Rismon 3 0-0 7, Nate Korb 1 0-0 2, Dane Warp 7 1-2 19, Jacob LaBrie 1 0-0 2, Michael Bakke 1 2-4 4, Wyatt Lindbloom 1 0-0 2, Jase Kato 1 0-2 2. Totals 20 4-9 52.

3-point goals-GFH 7 (Vining 3, Wyman, Wetzel 3), Havre 8 (Boles 3, Rismon, Warp 4). Total fouls-GFH 12, Havre 12. Fouled out-none. Technical fouls-none.