Rustlers spoil Pony girls home debut

The Havre Blue Ponies were hoping that playing at home would jumpstart them in the 2015-16 girls basketball season, but unfortunately for HHS, the hoop was no kinder the HHS gymnasium.

For the second straight game, the Havre girls basketball struggled to score and Saturday night against CMR, they really struggled in the second half when the Ponies managed just 13 points, compared to 28 for the Lady Rustlers, who defeated Havre 48-37.

The key point in the game came midway through the third quarter. The Ponies had built a 26-22 lead, but a 10-0 run by CMR that included a pair of 3-pointers, gave the Rustlers a 32-26 advantage over the Ponies.

Naomi Terry got a pair of steals and converted them into layups within the span of a minute to get the Ponies within three points at 33-30 and later buried a trey to keep Havre within striking distance at 37-33 with 6:08 left to play in the fourth quarter.

But when the Ponies needed to score offensively to get over the hump, they just couldn't. It took more than four minutes before HHS scored again and by then the game was out of reach.

"We only scored 13 points in the second half," HHS head coach Dustin Kraske said. "And that's just not going to be good enough."

For the second straight game, the Ponies got the bulk of their points from two players, Dani Wagner and Terry. Wagner, a senior, put together an impressive eight-point first quarter that helped the Ponies build a 14-9 lead at the end of the first stanza and scored another bucket in the second as HHS took a 24-20 lead into the half.

However, Wagner was held to just two points in the second half and finished with 12. Terry scored six in the first half and managed seven of Havre's 13-second half points on her way to a game-high 13 herself.

Despite winning the game, the Rustlers did it with only one player scoring in double figures. Akasia Denton led the way for CMR with 10 points, while Addison Gardner had eight. Courtney Schroeder and Cailey Froehle also pitched in with six each.

"I thought we played pretty well defensively," Kraske said. "I liked our effort there much better than a week ago."

But the determining factor in the loss for Havre was its ability to hit shots. The Ponies shot 28 percent in their loss to Malta and similarly shot just 29 percent in the loss to CMR and connected on only two shots from beyond the arc.

"I think it has to do with our youthfulness," Kraske said. "I honestly do. We have some kids that need to step up and score more. And I don't think it's from a lack of effort or a lack of good looks. We have kids that are just working too hard to score too little."

After losing just six games all of last season, the Ponies 0-2 start could be a cause for concern, especially after they were held under 40 points in both games. Yet, Kraske said the Ponies simply need to go back to work and continue to get better with conference foes Livingston and Belgrade coming to town this weekend.

"Right now, the games are faster than the pace that we are going in practice," Kraske said. "I thought we did a good job of doing our drills at more of a game-speed last week, but I think that's something we need to do a better job of in practice. I think that we will get there. But it would be really nice if we could develop a third scorer.

"I don't think 37 points is going to get it done," he added. "We probably need to score around 50 and that's something that's hard to do with just two players scoring consistently. We should get more than 12 points from the other six kids. I liked our effort, we just need to find a way to score more."

The Ponies will take on Livingston Friday night at 7:30 p.m., and Belgrade Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Both games will be held inside the HHS gymnasium.

Great Falls CMR 48, Havre 37

CMR 9 11 13 15 - 48

Havre 14 10 6 7 - 37

CMR: Akasia Denton 10, Zuzu Rudio 6, Mady Skawinski 5, Courteney Shovlin 2, Addison Gardner 8, Kyra Willis 2, Briana Brown 3, Courtney Schroeder 6, Cailey Froehle 6.

Havre: Ceyara Plante 5, Ryen Olson 1, Dani Wagner 12, Naomi Terry 13, Danielle Wallace 4, Kristen Nash 2.