Good Start: Pony girls beat Laurel

The Havre High girls basketball team may have had to play in a new divisional format this season, but despite experiencing something new, the results for Havre were strikingly similar.

The Blue Ponies, who took part for the first time in the Eastern A Super Divisional Thursday in Billings at the Rimrock Auto Arena, downed the Laurel Locomotives 58-50 to advance to the Eastern A semifinals. The win also means that the Ponies, who are 12-7 on the season, are one win away from a fifth straight trip to the Class A state tournament.

"I was really pleased with the way our kids came out and played today," HHS head coach Dustin Kraske said. "We just played winning basketball, I don't really know how else to describe it. We were patient offensively and only had 11 turnovers. We played great defense, and we did a good job of rebounding. We just played good, fundamental basketball."

The Ponies, who won the last four Central A Divisional titles, jumped on the underdog Locomotives by hitting three 3-pointers early in the game to jump ahead 11-3. Laurel answered by scoring eight of the next 12 points, and at the end of the first quarter, HHS led 15-11.

However, Havre resumed its hot shooting in the second quarter, with two threes that sparked an 11-0 run and put the Ponies in front 26-11. Laurel made some headway before the half, but still the Ponies went into the intermission with up 35-22.

In the third quarter, Laurel crept within striking distance after six points by Abbie Lohof got the Locomotives within 11 at 44-33, but a 5-2 run by Havre pushed the lead back to 14 points. Once again in the fourth quarter, Laurel got as close as 10 points at 53-43 but, again, the Ponies had the answer and held the Locomotives to seven points the rest of the way as Havre held on for an eight-point win.

"I thought we did a great job of defending Lohof," Kraske said. "She scored 18 points, but she had to work really hard to get 18 points. Dani (Wagner), I thought, did a great job defending her and her teammates did a good job of helping and taking a lot of other things away."

Wagner may have done a great job defensively on Lohof, but she was equally impressive on the offensive end of the floor, finishing with a game-high 20 points. Naomi Terry also contributed with 10 for HHS as did Kristen Nash.

After knocking off Laurel, Havre will face another Eastern A club tonight, as the Ponies will do battle with the Billings Central Rams, who defeated Livingston easily Thursday. The Rams were state semifinalists a year ago and Kraske said that his team will have a big challenge in front of it.

"It's going to be a completely different matchup for us," Kraske said. "So we will go back to the hotel tonight and watch some film on them and do some game planning. It will be a different game from the game we played against Laurel, but I think it's going to come down to defense and rebounding to be honest with you."

If Havre wins against Billings Central, it will play in the Eastern A championship Saturday night at 8 p.m. The Ponies would also be in the state tournament with a victory, and even if they lose in the semifinals, they can still make it to state with a win over Hardin or Miles City Saturday at 10:30 a.m in a game that would be played on the campus of Rocky Mountain College.

Havre 58, Laurel 50

Laurel 11 11 13 13 – 50

Havre 15 20 14 9 – 58

Laurel: Rylee Clark 15, Aspen Cotter 7, Dakota Boechler 8, McKenna Goettlich 2, Abbie Lohof 18. Totals: 18 7-10.

Havre: Ceyara Plante 4, Dani Wagner 20, Naomi Terry 10, Marca Herron 6, Danielle Wallace 6, Kristen Nash 10, Kyley Verploegen 2. Totals: 21 9-13.