Hi-Line Athlete Profile: Jacob LaBrie, Havre Boys Basketball

It may be hard to believe, but the high school basketball season is just a few days away from starting. Moreover, with a slew of talented returning players, few teams are looking forward to the start of the season more than the Havre Blue Ponies.

The Pony boys will start their season Saturday, in Malta against Havre's Class B rival. It should be a good early-season test for HHS and will give young players such as Jacob LaBrie a chance to shine.

LaBrie, who will be a junior this season, saw plenty of action for the Ponies in 2014-15 and is not a stranger when it comes to the big moment, seeing heavy minutes at both the Class A state tournament and the Central A Divisional a season ago.

During the regular season, LaBrie played in 18 games and averaged 4.3 points per game as the Ponies posted an 11-7 record and a second-place finish in the Central A, as the Ponies advanced to the Class A state tourney for the second straight year.

And thanks to talented youngsters like LaBrie and a number of veterans returning to the team including three-time All-State selection Dane Warp, Nate Rismon and Jerod Boles, the Ponies are hoping to make it back to state for the third consecutive year.

Yet, things will also be different for the Ponies in 2015-16. Not only did Havre lose two key players up front in Jase Kato and Michael Bakke – the team will also take part in the nine-team Eastern A Divisional for the first time which will make qualifying for state that much harder.

The loss of Kato and Bakke also means that the Ponies will rely more on perimeter players this season and more than ever on 3-point shooting.

That bodes well for a player like LaBrie, who has shown a penchant for shooting the long ball after knocking down 34 percent of his shots from beyond the arc last season.

However, in addition to being a solid shooter LaBrie can affect the game in other ways thanks to his athleticism. The junior is a three-sport athlete for the Ponies with 21 career receptions and four touchdowns for the football team, as well as a talented sprinter that competed at the Class A state meet for Havre last spring.

With his ability to shoot and defend LaBrie is a perfect fit for what the Ponies want to do this season and will get a chance to show how much he's improved since last season Saturday in Malta.

Before LaBrie and the Ponies make the 90-mile trip to take on the Mustangs Sautrday, the Havre Daily News caught up with LaBrie for five questions.

HDN: How excited are you guys for the season to start?

LaBrie: "We are excited. We have Dane Warp back and he is one of the best players in the state. So hopefully we can have another good season like we did last year."

HDN: How are you guys going to play different this year without as many big guys on the team?

LaBrie: "We are going to play faster and do more guard stuff. We will do more full-court press and we will have a lot more fast breaks. We are looking forward to it and we are all good shooters so I think it will work well. We will all just have to crash the boards and get rebounds."

HDN: You guys were one shot away from the state title game a year ago. What do you need to do to get back and make another run at state?

LaBrie: "We will need to try and get a lot of rebounds with us losing those big guys. If we can do that and shoot the ball well all year we will be fine."

HDN: Who is your favorite basketball team and why?

LaBrie: "I like Duke. Grayson Allen is my favorite player. I just like how they are always a young team and that they shoot lots of three's."

HDN: What is going to be the key to beating Malta to open the season?

LaBrie: "I think just getting used to playing with more guards. We also really need to make sure that we crash the boards and get rebounds."