Pony girls split with a pair of Eagles

FAIRFIELD — Havre High head girls basketball coach Dustin Kraske prophetically stated that the Fairfield Eagles don’t know what it’s like to lose heading into Friday night’s showdown between the Class A and B defending state champions.

And while the Blue Ponies, who came into the game at the Fairfield Gymnasium, on an eight-game winning streak, nearly showed the Eagles what it was like to lose for the first time in five years, getting close wasn’t quite enough.

The Ponies watched as Fairfield’s Taleigh Isakson made a game-winning layup with five seconds left in regulation, lifting the Eagles to their Montana-record 120th consecutive win, 49-47. Fairfield, coached by former Chester/J-I coach Dustin Gordon, hasn’t lost a game since the 2009 Class B state championship game.

“It was a great game, like we expected,” Gordon said. “We played the defending Class C champions (Belt) and the defending Class A champions on back-to-back nights, and both games were really close. Havre is such a good basketball team. Coach (Kraske) does such an incredible job with that team. So tonight, these were valuable minutes we got against a quality opponent.”

The Ponies did prove they were indeed up to the task against the record-setting Eagles. Havre came from 12 points down in the third quarter, and had multiple chances to be the team to take the Eagles down for the first time in 120 games. And while the Ponies missed a free throw that could have given them a chance to tie the game with just .03 seconds left on the clock, Havre knew it had nothing to be ashamed of when the game was over. In what was a non-conference affair, the three-time Central A champions gave the Eagles all they could handle for 32 minutes.

“I’m just very, very proud of our girls,” Kraske said. “They fought back several times tonight, and even took the lead at one point. Our kids showed a lot of heart tonight, and I couldn’t be more proud of them. Playing in a game like this, it makes our team and our program that much better. So kudos to our kids for how they played tonight.”

Havre did play with a lot of heart and determination. Even though sophomore Naomi Terry and senior Morgan Mazurkiewicz hit 3-pointers in the first two minutes, the Eagles ripped off a 10-0 run to end the first quarter, and open up a 16-7 lead. In the second quarter, Havre showed it was theirs to fight however. Senior Lindsey Kudrna scored eight points in the period, including three straight buckets, and Terry nailed another triple to pull the Ponies to within three, 26-23 at the break.

In the third stanza, Havre again had to fight from behind. Fairfield star Lizzy Klinker sparked the Eagles on another 10-0 run with three straight hoops, and they would lead 36-23 with three minutes left in the period.

But the Ponies rallied again. Kudrna and Dani Wagner combined to score the last seven points of the period, and the Ponies trailed by just four heading into the fourth. From there, the game see sawed as Terry and Ceyra Plante each hit clutch triples to keep Havre in the game. Wagner would add a crucial layup with 1:47 left to pull to the Ponies to within one at 47-46 and seconds later, Mazurkiewicz tied things up with a free throw.

In the end however, the Eagles stood tall. With the game tied at 47-47, Fairfield held the ball for nearly 50 seconds, trying to get the last, best shot possible. And what ensued was Isakson breaking free in the lane for a wide-open layup. The Eagles would foul Mazurkiewicz before the game ended, but Havre couldn’t quite get over the hump in the end, and Fairfield’s streak remained in-tact.

“We wanted to get Lizzy a touch on that last possession,” Gordon said. “And we thought we had a good look with her in the corner. But Havre defended really well. They also play such great defense. I honestly didn’t think the ball would end up in Taleigh’s hands in that spot, but it did, and she made it. We’ve been in a lot of close ball games the last few weeks, and it’s nice to see us be able to execute when it counts like that.

“It was a great pass by Klinker and a great play by Isakson, for sure,” Kraske noted. “Coach Gordon is a very, very good basketball coach, and his kids come ready to play every single day, and they’re ready to execute under any circumstance. And they executed a great play at the end of the game tonight.”

In what was truly a battle of two great defensive teams, Wagner led Havre with 14 points and five rebounds. Terry added 11 points and three trey’s, while Kudrna added 10 points and Mazurkiewicz scored nine. Klinker was as advertised as she poured in a game-high 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting, while also grabbing eight boards.

And though the close loss to one of the greatest basketball program’s in modern Montana history was a tough one for the Ponies to swallow, Kraske said he knows his team will show resolve, and that their biggest test would come Saturday night when they had to bounce back against Lewistown.

“It sounds kind of dumb to say, because this was such a great game, and Fairfield is such a great team, but our biggest game this weekend is Lewistown,” Kraske said. “That’s a conference game and a win would give us a chance to pretty much win the Central A again. Give our kids a lot of credit tonight for the way they battled and fought. But now we’ll get a chance to see exactly how strong we are mentally because we need to go home and win a big game on Saturday night.”

After losing for the first time in over a month, the Ponies returned home to the HHS gymnasium Saturday to take on Lewistown. And led by a season-high 27-point effort from sophomore Naomi Terry, Havre bounced back in resounding fashion with a 72-44 victory. The win improved the Ponies’ record to 12-3 overall and 7-0 in conference play. They are now just one win or a Browning loss away from clinching the regular season title.

“It was pretty nice to get the win, we were pretty upset after (Friday’s) loss,” Terry said. “We knew we had to come out today and be ready to play. We wanted to be better in our second game (of the weekend) than our first. We wanted to get ready for divisionals, we only have one conference game left, so we want to try to go out and beat Browning and win the league.”

The Eagles, who took the Ponies to overtime in Lewistown in the first meeting between the two teams, got off to a promising start and grabbed an early 6-3 lead on a bucket by Jaree Mane. Lewistown was on point for much of the opening stanza but Terry countered with three 3-pointers for Havre so the Eagles’ lead was just 15-14.

In the second quarter, the Ponies continued their hot streak from the perimeter as Morgan Mazurkiewicz hit a triple with Havre down to three minutes into the second to put HHS in front by one. Then, freshman Marca Herron got in the on the act, hitting from deep with the score tied at 21-21. And just over a minute later she hit another bomb to give the Ponies a 28-23 edge with 2:16 left in the first half.

Scores by Terry and Mazurkiewicz capped off 18-6 run to close the half and extended the Havre lead to 34-24.

At the start of the third, Havre continued its run. Terry and Lindsey Kudrna scored right off the bat to push the Pony lead to 14, then Terry connected on her fourth trey of the game to put Havre up 41-24 just 1:33 into the second half.

After Lewistown finally stopped a 25-6 Havre run, Terry notched an old fashioned 3-point play to keep Havre’s lead at 16. The rest of the quarter was about Dani Wagner, who scored eight points in the final 5:48 to make the score 56-35 after three and the Ponies cruised from there.

“I thought our kids played well all night, Kraske said. “But they really played well to start the second half. Naomi did well tonight. She was looking to score was very aggressive attacking the basket. Dani also did a great job in the third, she played big on both ends of the floor.”

In addition to Terry’s 27 points, Wagner also had a solid night with 13. Mazurkiewicz scored nine, while Herron finished with six and Plante had five.

The third-ranked Ponies will be back in action in when they will travel to CMR Tuesday to make up for a game that was supposed to be played on Dec. 13 but was postponed.

Note: Havre Daily News' writer Chris Peterson contributed to this story.

Fairfield 49, Havre 47

Havre 7 16 9 15 -- 47

Fairfield 16 10 10 13 -- 49

Havre – Ceyara. Plante 3, Dani Wagner 14, Morgan Mazurkiewicz 9, Naomi Terry 11, Lindsey Kudrna 10. Totals: 15 11-19.

Fairfield – Liz Klinker 18, Taleigh Isakson 8, Brooke Poor 2, Logan Kolste 4, Allie Steinbach 2, Natalie Klinker 11, Macah Maddox 4. Totals: 19 11-15.

Havre 72, Lewistown 44

Havre 14 20 22 16-72

Lewistown 15 9 11 9-44

Havre - Ceyara Plante 5, Dani Wagner 13, Morgan Mazurkiewicz 9, Naomi Terry 27, Marca Herron 6, Holly Purkett 3, Lindsey Kudrna 7. Totals 26 10-23.

Lewistown - Maria Henderson 2, J. Kindzerski 5, T. Olson 15, C. Carpenter 7, Lexie Anderson 8, K. Fleharty 2, Jaree Mane 5. Totals 15 9-16.