Fight Hard: Ponies finish fourth

MISSOULA — For the second time in as many nights, the Havre Blue Ponies sat inside the bowels of famed Dahlberg Arena brokenhearted. The Ponies came to the 2016 Class A state tournament as one of the favorites, and while they got close to glory, not once, but twice, in the end, a remarkable season ended with a bitter defeat.

After losing to the Billings Central Rams in Friday night’s semifinals, Havre bounced back Saturday morning to beat defending state champion Laurel, a win which pushed the Ponies into Saturday night’s Class A consolation game.

But, with a chance to earn Havre’s first trophy in boys basketball in 12 years, the Ponies could only watch as the Polson Pirates celebrated a dramatic, 66-65 win in overtime. Havre had the ball last, after three straight Polson misses at the foul line, but the Ponies never got off a final shot in the extra frame, in a game which lived up to the hype, as two great basketball teams battled for 36 minutes.

“We didn’t lose the game because of anything the kids did,” Havre High head coach Curt Leeds said emphatically. “The boys did exactly what they were supposed to do. The end of the game, that’s my fault. I had a time out left and I should have used it when we got the rebound. So that’s on me.

“So I don’t feel bad, I feel proud,” Leeds added. “We had a great season, we played well tonight. And the kids did everything we asked of them. The four best teams in the state played in the last two games of the state tournament, and we were one of those teams. So they should be proud and hold their heads up.”

The game against the Pirates was one that both teams could be proud of as the Ponies and Pirates put on a show for a big Dahlberg Arena crowd.

Havre took an early lead on back-to-back 3-pointers by Dane Warp and Jerod Boles, while Boles finished a late first-quarter run with a buzzer-beating triple. Polson then opened the second stanza on a 7-0 run, but Havre came right back with Warp drilling a corner three as part of an 8-2 run, and a fantastic first 16 minutes came to a close with Polson leading 31-29.

“Polson played really well,” Leeds said. “They’re tough. We knew they would be. So it was a very good game because both teams went at it, and both teams played very hard right to the end.”

And it did come down to the bitter end.

With senior Nate Rismon unable to go in the second half due to a leg injury, sophomore Ivar Aageson gave the Ponies a spark in the third quarter, and Jacob LaBrie lit the flame even more when he buried a trey to lift the Ponies to a 41-39 lead heading into the fourth.

LaBrie gave Havre an even bigger lead when he nailed his second bomb with 6:08 to go, but the Pirates didn’t fold. And by the time Peyton Left Hand knocked down two pressure-packed free throws with :40 left in regulation, Polson held a 54-51 lead.

But, in his final game of a brilliant career, Warp wouldn’t be denied and he calmly hit a fade-away three to knot things at 54-54, and that’s the way regulation would end.

“Dane is amazing,” Leeds said of his senior super star, who scored 61 points Saturday alone. “I don’t even need to wait to look back on his career. He’s been an incredible player. And with Jerod and Nate’s help, they’ve brought Havre boys basketball back to the level it should be.”

And Havre had four minutes left in the season to get to even another level. However, Polson started the overtime on a 5-0 run, and twice led by as many as four points. But, buckets by Aageson and Nate Korb kept things close for the Ponies, and an old-fashioned three by Warp again brought Havre to within one with :44 left. From that point though, both teams would miss potential game-finishing free throws, and when Julian Jones missed two straight free throws with :09 left, Havre had the ball with one last shot. But it was a shot that never came, and the Pirates escaped with a win in the most exciting game of the entire tourney.

“We had our chances,” Warp said after scoring 32 points and grabbing eight rebounds in his final game of a legendary four-year career. “I missed a couple free throws and that hurt us. But it can’t be chalked up to one mistake. It was a collective deal. And all the credit to them (Pirates). They played a great game.”

Warp was spectacular in the finale, but HHS did have to go the extra four minutes without not only Rismon, but Boles, who fouled out in regulation, ending a great run he had in the postseason. Aageson did come up big for the Ponies with 10 points, while LaBrie finished with eight. Jeremiah North-Piegan and Matthew Rensvold combined for 37 points for the Pirates.

“It’s tough because these boys played their hearts out,” Leeds said. “They wanted to bring a trophy home really bad, and I feel for them that it didn’t quite happen. But they played their best basketball at the end of the season. I don’t think we played quite as well this week as we did last, but we still played very good, and they gave everything they had and at the end of the day, that’s all a coach can ask for.”

Fighting Back

The Ponies were riding high heading into Friday night’s Class A semifinal against Billings Central, a team HHS had just beaten by 16 points last week in Billings. But, it didn’t take long for the Rams, who would lose a close battle to Dillon in Saturday night’s championship game, to squelch Havre’s dream of playing for a state championship.

In a 68-57 win over the Ponies, Billings Central exploded in the second quarter, turning an 11-8 edge into a 30-12 halftime lead. The Rams upped that lead to as much as 24 points in the third quarter, and while Havre fought hard to whittle it down in the fourth, the Rams weren’t going to let the Ponies, who shot 18 percent from the field and 0-of-13 from three in the first half, pull off a miracle comeback.

“If you would have told me we would come out and shoot like that in the first half after the way we had been playing leading up to this game, I never would have believed it,” Leeds said. “But, it was just a tough shooting night for us, and Billings Central did a great job of changing things up defensively. They really packed it in on us, and we just could never get our offense going like it needed to. So give them (Rams) a lot of credit. They played very tough defense on us, and they are a very good team.”

Warp, still feeling the effects of a nasty sinus infection, did score 29 points, while Rismon added nine and Korb finished with eight points and eight boards. But it just wasn’t enough to overcome a sensational performance by Jacob Hadley and the Rams.

Still, Havre had a goal following Friday’s loss and that was to get to the consolation game. In order to do that, the Ponies needed to beat Laurel Saturday morning, and that’s exactly what they did — 70-57.

Behind 29 points from Warp, and an incredible 26 points on four triples from Boles, Havre broke open a close first three quarters by ripping off a 13-2 run in the fourth against the Locomotives. Rismon also scored 12 points in what was Havre’s last win of an incredible 18-8 season, a season which included an Eastern A championship and a regular season Central A title.

“The boys really stepped up this morning,” Leeds said after the win over Laurel. “It’s tough to come back and win this game after losing in the semifinals. I’ve seen a lot of teams fold in this situation over the years. But our kids didn’t do that. They wanted this one and they came back and played a great game.

“I’m just proud, this team battled through four tough games in three days,” Leeds added Saturday night. “This team is special. They’ve done a lot of special things, not only this season, but over the last three full years. They’ve worked hard, they’ve come together, and they’ve come a long way. Again, they brought Havre basketball back to the level it’s supposed to be.”

Polson 66, Havre 65, OT/3rd place

Havre 17 12 11 14 11 – 65

Polson13 18 8 15 12 – 66

Havre – Jerod Boles 2-11 0-0 6, Nate Korb 3-6 0-0 6, Dane Warp 10-17 9-15 32, Zach Hunt 1-1 0-0 3, Jacob LaBrie 3-8 0-0 8, Ivar Aageson 2-5 6-6 10, Michael Loftus 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 21-49 15-21.

Polson – Wyatt DuCharme 1-1 0-0 2, Payton Lefthand 4-14 2-2 11, Tanner Wilson 4-5 0-0 9, Matthew Rensvold 6-9 6-8 18, Julian Jones 1-6 3-7 5, J'von Niemeyer 1-4 1-1 3, Shade Main 0-0 0-0 0, Jeremiah North Piegan 8-10 2-3 19. Totals: 25-49 14-21.

Fouls – Havre 17, Polson 18. Fouled out –Boles, North Piegan. 3-pointers –Havre 8-23 (Boles 2-8, D. Warp 3-6, Hunt 1-1, LaBrie 2-6, Aageson 0-2), Polson 2-13 (Lefthand 1-6, Wilson 1-2, Jones 0-3, Miemeyer 0-2). Rebounds – Havre 26 (D. Warp 8), Polson 33 ((North Piegan 9). Assists – Havre 10 (D. Warp 7), Polson 15 (Lefthand 5). Turnovers – Havre 9, Polson 14. Blocks – Havre 1 (D. Warp), Polson 3 (Rensvold, Jones, Main). Steals –Havre 6 (D. Warp 3), Polson 5 (Jones 5).

Havre 70, Laurel 57, lo

Havre10 18 20 22 – 70

Laurel11 12 18 16 – 57

HAVRE – Jerod Boles 9-15 4-4 26, Nate Rismon 5-8 1-1 12, Nate Korb 0-0 1-2 1, Dane Warp 6-12 14-19 29, Zachary Hunt 1-2 0-0 2, Jacob LaBrie 0-1 0-0 0, Ivar Aageson 0-3 0-0 0. Totals: 21-41 20-26 70.

LAUREL – Marcus Gunn 5-8 0-2 10, Shay Osborne 2-3 0-0 4, Christian Jones 2-3 3-3 7, Layne Willis 2-7 5-6 10, Casey Cole 2-11 1-2 5, Hayden Love 1-3 0-1 2, Adam Gaetz 1-3 1-2 3, Josh Anderson 5-13 2-2 14, Trent Goldsberry 0-1 2-2 2, Marcus Miller 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 20-53 14-20 57.

3-point goals – Havre 8-15 (Boles 4-7, Rismon 1-2, Warp 3-4, LaBrie 0-1, Aageson 0-3). Laurel 3-15 (Jones 0-1, Willis 1-2, Cole 0-3, Love 0-2, Gaetz 0-1, Anderson 2-6). Rebounds – Havre 32 (Hunt 7), Laurel 28 (Osborne 5). Assists – Havre 9 (four with two). Laurel 8 (Cole 3, Anderson 3). Steals – Havre 3 (Boles 2), Laurel 5 (Love 2, Anderson 2). Blocks – Havre 2 (Warp 2), Laurel 2 (Love, Goldsberry). Turnovers – Havre 10, Laurel 8. Total fouls – Havre 15, Laurel 23. Fouled out – Gunn, Jones. Technicals – none.

Billings Central 68, Havre 57, sf

Havre 6 6 13 32 – 57

Central11 19 11 27 – 68

Havre – Jerod Boles 2-6 0-0 5, nate Rismon 3-12 3-4 9, Nate Korb 4-8 0-0 8, Dane Warp 13-33 3-5 29, Zach Hunt 0-1 0-0 0, Jacob LaBrie 2-5 0-0 6, Isaac Warp 0-5 0-0 0, Ivar Aageson 0-4 0-0 0. Totals: 24-74 6-9.

Billings Central – Michael Stanton 2-5 2-5 6, Chrishon Dixon 3-5 7-11 13, Zach Hanser 2-3 2-2 6, Jacob Hadley 6-10 10-15 23, Micah Holt-Seavy 1-2 0-0 2, Johnny Elliott 0-2 6-6 6, Shay Dantic 2-4 7-8 12. Totals: 16-31 34-47.

Fouls – Havre 31, Central 16. Fouled out – Boles, Korb, D. Warp, Aageson, Z. Hanser. 3-pointers – Havre 3-28 (Boles 1-3, Rismon 05, Korb 0-1, D. Warp 0-9, LaBrie 2-5, I. Warp 0-4, Aageson 0-1), Central 2-8 (Stanton 0-1, Z. Hanser 0-1, Hadley 1-3, Holt-Seavy 0-1, Dantic 1-2). Rebounds – Havre 39 (D. Warp 13), Central 36 (Hadley 13).