Pony girls come up just short against the Rustlers

The Havre High girls basketball team has done some incredible things already this season. But one feat the Blue Ponies weren't quite able to accomplish was taking all four games against their Class AA rivals.

Havre had a chance to do just that Tuesday night as the Blue Ponies took on the CMR Rustlers in a makeup game in Great Falls. But having already beaten the Rustlers two weeks ago in Havre, the Ponies came up on the short end of the second go-around Tuesday night at the CMR Fieldhouse. CMR beat the Ponies 54-50.

As expected, it was another good battle that went down to the final minutes, but CMR had the answers in clutch time. The game was tied at 13-13 after the first quarter, but the Rustlers surged to a 14-7 run in the second to take a 27-20 lead at intermission.

But Havre has been a resilient bunch all season long, and the Ponies took command in the third. A score at the end of the period by Morgan Mazurkiewicz left Havre with a 38-35 lead with eight minutes to play. From there however, CMR went on a 12-4 run, retook the lead, and never let Havre come all the way back, in what was just the Ponies' fourth loss all season long, and their only loss to either the Rustlers, or the Class AA Great Falls Bison.

And while Havre fought hard in the final minute, as a Dani Wagner basket cut the lead to two at 52-50 with eight seconds left, and the Ponies nearly got a steal on CMR's ensuing possession, it wasn't quite enough as HHS couldn't overcome a sluggish shooting night in which the Ponies made just three 3-pointers and shot 23 percent from the floor.

"Credit CMR for that, I think, a little bit," HHS head coach Dustin Kraske told the Great Falls Tribune. "Did we get some open shots? Sure, but they weren't very rhythmic and the passing, just the timing seemed off, for whatever reason. We were always behind."

Still, Kraske was proud of his team for the effort it gave in crunch time.

"Well that's our hope," Kraske said. "Down the stretch, we had, for the first time in game, well, Fairfield was the same way. too, we had end-of-game situations that played out in a game, so it was wonderful. I was proud of our kids for fighting, fighting, fighting."

Mazurkiewicz paced the Ponies with 21 points, while Wagner added 16. CMR, playing without star Taylor Edwards, got a team-high 13 points from Lindsey Martinez.

With the loss, Havre fell to 12-4 on the season, but remains perfect in the Central A at 7-0. The Ponies will play their final home game of the season when they take on Rocky Boy Saturday night at the HHS gymnasium.

C.M. Russell 54, Havre 50

Havre 13 7 16 14 – 50

CMR 13 14 8 19 – 54

Havre – Ceyara Plante 2 0-2 5, Morgan Mazurkiewicz 9 2-2 21, Dani Wagner 6-14 3-4 16, Naomi Terry 2 2-2 6, Holly Purkett 1 0-0 2. Totals: 20 7-10.

CMR – Destany Snider 1 0-0 3, Talya Vaira 1 2-2 4, Mady Skawinski 1 0-0 3, Courteney Shovlin 1 3-4 5, Briana Easton 6 0-0 12, Lindsay Martinez 3 7-10 13, Cailey Froehle 3 0-0 6, Addision Gardner 2 4-6 8. Totals: 18 16-22.

Team fouls – Havre 19, CMR 13. Fouled out – Lindsay Kudrna. 3-pointers – Plante 1, Wagner 1, Mazurkiewicz 1, Snider 1, Skawinski 1.