State A Basketball: Blue Ponies fall to Rams

MISSOULA - The Havre High boys basketball team was exactly where it wanted to be at 6:30 p.m. on Friday night. Playing the Billings Central Rams inside Dahlberg Arena for a berth in the Class A state championship game. After all, Havre had just beaten the Rams by 16 points in the Eastern A semifinals just one week ago.

But, just two hours later, the Ponies were in a much different place. Instead of dreaming of a state championship on Saturday night, the Ponies were left broken hearted as they suffered a 68-57 loss to the Rams in the Class A semifinals Friday night.

"They wanted it bad," Havre head coach Curt Leeds said of his team. "But it just didn't work out. Billings Central played a great game, and we did not shoot the ball well on our end. But all a coach can ask is for the kids to give their very best, and our boys did that tonight. They played their hearts out till the very end."

In the end, Havre dug itself too big a hole against the Rams. The Ponies shot a frosty 18 percent from the field in the first half, and fell behind the Rams, who will play Dillon in Saturday night's championship game, by as many 18 points in the first half, and by as many as 22 points in the third quarter. On the flip side, the Rams shot a blistering 52 percent from the field, and got 23 points and 13 rebounds from senior Jacob Hadley.

Havre, which got a heroic 29 points and 15 rebounds from an ailing Dane Warp, led 4-2 in the first quarter, and was never in front the rest of the game. The Rams led 11-6 at the end of one, and 30-12 at intermission as the Ponies went 0-13 from three in the first 16 minutes and just 3-28 for the game. Nate Korb and Nate Rismon added 17 points to Havre's cause, as the Ponies dropped into a Saturday morning loser-out game against Laurel.

"It hurts," Leeds said. "But we're going to try and battle back. We can still get a trophy, so that's our goal now."