HHS hoops hosts Rocky Boy in a Saturday doubleheader

The past year has been a highly successful one for Havre High girls basketball. The Blue Ponies won the Class A state championship last March and as they currently sit at 12-4 this season, ranked third in Class A, they appear ready to contend for another.

But regardless of how the rest of the season plays out for the Ponies, Saturday's game against Rocky Boy, which will be the last home game for the 2015 seniors, will always have special meaning. It will be the last time Morgan Mazurkiewicz, Tori Mazurkiewicz, Lindsey Kudrna and Rachel Majeres step onto the hardwood at the HHS gymnasium in front of the hometown fans and that's why winning and sending them out in style will be so important.

"I think they have all kind of left their mark of some kind," HHS head coach Dustin Kraske said. "As a whole, I think they have continued on the expectations and traditions that we are trying to bring forth as part of our girls basketball program. But they are four fantastic kids, first and foremost, they treat each other well, they treat other people well, they act with dignity and respect. They are role models to athletes that any young kid could look up to."

While all four players were part of the team that won the state championship a season ago, they are determined to make their own mark this season and while there is not much to be gained in the standings by beating Rocky Boy, HHS has lost two of its last three games and wants to get back to its winning ways.

And with the Central A Divisional tournament just two weeks away, there is no better way to prepare for postseason play than by playing a talented team like the Morning Stars.

"Rocky Boy is a fine basketball team," Kraske said. "They finished third in their league (District 1B) and that is a very competitive league. They have had a good season, so it's going to be a well-played game. They have a good team and I think we have a good team."

Yet, if the Ponies want to make a run at the state tournament like they did a season ago, they will need to get back to playing defense like they did earlier in the season, when teams struggled to crack 40 points and would often go minutes without scoring from the field.

"This team has the chance to do some things in the postseason," Kraske said. "We have to continue to develop the mind set that every single possession matters. Whether they make one pass, two passes or three passes, whatever, we need to sit down, I think that is our biggest problem is not staying in our stance the entire possession and that is something we are going to work on these next two weeks."

When it comes to locking down opponents, both Morgan and Tori Mazurkiewicz, when healthy, have been key. But, Morgan Mazurkiewicz has also been outstanding on the offensive end as well, averaging more than 16 points per game, which is tops in the Central A. Yet, with Tori Mazurkiewicz out to due to injury, the Ponies have had to rely on others to step up, including Majeres, Kudrna, Ceyara Plante, Naomi Terry, Dani Wagner and Holly Purkett.

The Morning Stars will counter with a talented group of their own, headlined by Jai-Lynne Day Child, who led Rocky Boy with 11 points in the 48-40 loss to Havre back on Jan. 7.

Following the girls basketball game between Havre and Rocky Boy, the boys will meet in a non-conference battle of postseason contenders. The Ponies, the fourth-ranked team in Class A, come in with an 11-5 record, while the Stars will come in 1-15 overall due to the fact that they had to forfeit nine wins, including a 90-72 win over Havre Jan. 7. Yet, don't let the Stars' record fool you, they have the ability to make some noise in the postseason and will be looking to build some momentum going into the District 1B tournament with a win over HHS.

The Ponies, on the other hand, are in need of a win in their own right after dropping four of their last seven games, and three of their last four games in the Central A.

"This is an important game for us," HHS head coach Curt Leeds said. "It's a game for us to find some emotion and a chance for us to find some physicality. We have let teams out work us a little bit lately, especially on the boards, and we need to get back to playing at a high level and back to being ourselves."

In the first meeting between the two teams, the Ponies had no answer for Rocky Boy forward Cecil LaFromboise, who dominated the game with a double-double that included a game-high 29 points. Yet, Havre was without its top two big men in Michael Bakke and Wyatt Lindbloom.

"Having Bakke back will be a huge help for us with rebounding and he adds a lot of energy on defense as well," Leeds said. "Lindbloom will always help us. He is our other big guy off the bench and can help us defensively and with rebounding.”

The Ponies have also struggled to score recently as they have been held under 60 points in their last four outings. Dane Warp still leads the Central A in scoring and is a huge part of the Havre attack but HHS also needs to get production from Jerod Boles, Nate Rismon, Bakke, Jaob LaBrie and Nate Korb.

In addition to LaFromboise, the Stars have a number of other talented players that Havre will need to deal with headlined by Junior Day Child, as well as Bubby Gopher and Skylar Parisian.

"A win over Rocky Boy would be huge," Leeds said. "We just need to get some momentum and some confidence back. We need to play with some emotion and get back to playing the way we did earlier in the season."

The first game of the Rocky Boy-Havre doubleheader will take place between the girls teams at 5 p.m. Saturday inside the HHS gymnasium on what will be senior night for the Ponies. The boys game will follow at 6:30 p.m.