HHS boys clip Class B Fairfield at home

One thing you can say about Havre High boys basketball team is that it plays exciting games, as the Blue Ponies continued a recent trend with two games that went down to the wire this weekend.

The first game took place on Friday, when the Ponies hosted Fairfield of Class B in a non-conference tilt that went down to the final minute before HHS pulled out a 54-49 victory. Then, on Saturday, Havre paid a visit to Central A rival Lewistown. Yet, this time, the Ponies fell short and were upset at the hands of the Eagles, 57-52.

Havre is now 11-5 overall on the season as the Ponies picked up an extra win on Friday due to Rocky Boy forfeiting its win over the Ponies earlier in the year becasue of the participation of an ineligible player.

But the loss to Lewistown dropped Havre’s record in the Central A to 4-3 and puts them just half a game in front of Browning for second place in the league. The Ponies are no longer in contention for the regular season title, which will go to Belgrade after dropping three of their last four conference games.

“There is a little concern right now towards us,” HHS head coach Curt Leeds said. “We started the season so hot and we have been dwindling down a little bit recently, so we want to make sure that we close the season strong and get some momentum in these last couple of games.”

Against Fairfield, the Ponies were without starting point guard Jerod Boles and they seemed out of sorts early as they spotted the Eagles a 10-2 lead just over five minutes into the game. Yet, HHS, which started cold from the field, got a spark from Nate Rismon, who hit a long 2-pointer and then a 3-pointer less than a minute later to trim the Eagles’ lead to 11-9 with 1:50 to play in the first quarter. Dane Warp tied the game a minute later and a trey from Nate Korb helped HHS cap a 14-2 run that put the Ponies ahead 16-12 after one.

“It all started with getting a couple defensive stops,” Leeds said of the run.

The Eagles trimmed the Havre lead to 18-17 after a basket by Trevor Schenk but the Ponies bounced back with an 11-2 run that featured a hoop by Warp, a trey by Jacob LaBrie and another hit from beyond the arc by Korb.

“LaBrie really shot the ball well, he was 3-of-6 in that game,” Leeds said. “And it was good to see Korb get the ball to go in the hoop. He was 2-for-3 and it was good to see that confidence to catch the ball and release it. He caught a pass from Dane and then it was nothing but net.”

However, Fairfield was determined to make a game out of it and following an 8-0 spurt to end the half, they trailed the Ponies by just two, 32-30 at the intermission. In the third, Warp shouldered the offensive workload for the Ponies as he scored eight of Havre’s 10 points to help HHS grab a 42-38 edge going into the fourth.

Not long into the final stanza, Fairfield tied the score at 42-42 and even took the lead, 45-44 after knocking down three free throws in a 20-second span. But, Havre would not trail for long as LaBrie buried a clutch three to reclaim the lead for Havre with 3:07 left to play. But again Fairfield battled back and tied the score on a Dalton Palmer bucket at the 2:14 mark. And after Michael Bakke and Schenk exchanged scores, the game was tied 49-49 with 1:32 on the clock.

Then Rismon made three shots that defined the game.

The junior forward, who already hit a buzzer beater to beat Conrad earlier in the season, stepped up and nailed a huge three 14 seconds after Schenk tied it to put Havre up three and back in the driver’s seat.

“I saw Dane starting to drive so I popped up a little bit and just shot it,” Rismon said. “It felt good when it went in, I thought it was going to go and I was just hoping it did.”

The Eagles got two possessions to attempt to tie the game but came up short on both, missing three 3-point attempts in the final 20 seconds that would have tied the score. Then, with 5.4 seconds remaining, Rismon sunk two clutch free throws to put the win on ice.

“I was hoping these next (free throws) were going to go in,” Rismon said of the final free throws after missing one on the previous Havre possession. “I knew they were kind of clutch free throws because they weren’t down by very much.”

Warp led the way for the Ponies with a game-high 19 points, while Rismon finished with 14 and LaBrie added nine.

Following the win Friday, the Ponies looked for their third win in a row against Lewistown on the road Saturday but found out right away that they were in for a battle as the Eagles hung right with them in the first quarter and trailed just 19-18 eight minutes into the game. By halftime, the Ponies still couldn’t shake the Eagles and held a slim 27-25 advantage.

The third quarter was when the momentum started to turn in favor of the Eagles as they outscored the Ponies by a margin of 16-11, which gave them a 41-38 going into the final stanza.

With two minutes left and the Eagles leading by one, Warp fouled out. That allowed the Eagles to stretch the lead to three points. And with less than 30 seconds to play and Havre trailing 55-52, had an opportunity to tie the game but a Rismon shot attempt was no good and the Eagles secured the rebound. Lewistown then salted away the win with two free throws to secure the five-point winning margin.

“The biggest problem for us in Lewistown was defensive rebounding,” Leeds said. “We struggled with that and that is really something that we are going to need to work on and improve at in these last couple games.”

Warp still led all scorers with 23 points in the loss, including three 3-pointers. Bakke also pitched in with 11.

The Ponies will be back on the court Saturday and will try to get build some late season momentum, when they host Rocky Boy in a non-conference clash between local rivals.

Havre 54, Fairfield 49

Fairfield 12 18 8 11 - 49

Havre 16 16 10 12 - 54

Havre - Dane Warp 19, Nate Rismon 14, Jacob LaBrie 9, Nate Korb 6, Michael Bakke 6.

Fairfield - Trevor Schenk 19, Dru Oveson 17, Allen 8, Dalton Palmer 2, Mayer 1, Coverdell 2,

Lewistown 57, Havre 52

Havre 18 9 11 14 – 52

Lewistown 17 8 16 16 – 57

Havre: Jerod Boles 6, Nate Rismon 3, Dane Warp 23, Jacob LaBrie 5, Michael Bakke 11, Wyatt Lindbloom 2, Jase Kato 2. Totals: 15 9-13.

Lewistown: Derheim 10, McCarthy 9, Errecart 6, Ray 19, Perry 5, Davis 8. Totals: 12 15-22.

3-pointers: Derheim 1, Ray 4, Perry 1, Warp 3, LaBrie 1, Rismon 1.