HHS boys play a pair of tough Eagles

The first half of the season didn’t go the way the Havre High boys basketball team wanted. Yet six games is just a small sample and the Blue Ponies have plenty of time to get back on track, starting tonight in Fairfield.

Havre, 1-5 on the season, looks for its second win on the road against Fairfield. The Eagles will host the Ponies tonight at 5:30 in a non-conference tilt. HHS will return home Saturday for a crucial Central A conference game with Lewistown. Tip-off is set for 5 p.m.

While the Ponies will be happy to get a win of any kind right now, the key game over the weekend, according to Havre head coach Curt Leeds comes Saturday and with the team sitting at 0-2 in the Central A, it’s hard to argue.

“In this conference, you have to win your games at home,” Leeds said. “If you win all your home games, that at least gets you to 4-4. If you don’t win your games at home, it makes it harder. It’s hard to win on the road in this league, so if you can’t win at home, it makes it hard to get that good seed for divisionals and you might end up in a play-in game.”

Leeds and Havre are undoubtedly focused on Lewistown, but tonight’s game against Fairfield also presents the Ponies with a good opportunity to play a quality opponent. It will also give Havre a chance to try out some of the new offensive sets installed over the break.

“I definitely think this is a game that gives a chance to get better,” Leeds said. “Fairfield is a good team and playing down there is going to be a challenge for us, but it will be nice for us to have a game before Lewistown to have a chance to try out some of our new offensive sets. But (Fairfield) they beat Shelby and Shelby is supposed to be pretty good this year, so it’s going to be tough.”

The Eagles, who come into tonight 5-2, have a slew of talented players such as Luke Batson, Cantor Coverdell and Chandler Allen.

After taking on Fairfield, Havre will have another challenge on its hands at home against a Lewistown team that has played well early in the season. The Eagles enter the weekend 3-1 overall and 1-0 in the Central A.

Much of the early-season success Lewistown has had, is thanks to an offense that is averaging 58.8 points per game and boasts three double-digit scorers. Lewistown’s leading scorer is Jaden Graham, who scores 13.5 points per game to go along with 8.2 rebounds. Graham is just a sophomore, as is the Eagles’ second leading scorer, Tanner Trafton, who is scoring 12.5 per game and grabbing 7.5 boards. Eric Know is another that averages in double digits for Lewistown. He is scoring 10.5 points and is the team’s top 3-point shooter with seven made shots from deep.

“They have a really good sophomore class,” Leeds said. “Their two leading scorers are both sophomores and they are both pretty big kids and they get after it on the offensive glass. The number one thing is to make sure we don’t give them any second-chance shots and limit their chances to get easy put backs.”

While Lewistown’s offense has been explosive, the Ponies have struggled to score and come in averaging just 41.5 points per game. Havre lacks a true go-to scorer on offense, but does get a team-high 9.7 points from Jacob LaBrie. Nate Korb also averages 7.8 and Ivar Aageson averages 7.5. Ryan Bakke has also been a solid contributor with 5.5 per game. Isaac Warp is also adding 4.8.

“I think that we are going to have to be a team that has eight guys scoring every night,” Leeds said. “We are going to do some different things with the flex and the triangle and that is going to require some more passing and for us to be more patient. We have been spending way more time on defense this year than offense, so we want to try and help our defense a little bit.”

Regardless of the offense his team plays or the opponent, one key, per Leeds, is going to be turnovers, both limiting them offensively and cashing in on the other end.

“For one we have to do a better job of taking care of the ball,” Leeds said. “The other thing, is that when we do get turnovers, we need to get some easy baskets. We haven’t really done a great job at that, so when we do get them, we need to take advantage.”

Havre will go for its second win of the season tonight in Fairfield. The game will get underway at 5:30. The Ponies will then look for their first Central A win Saturday night inside the HHS gymnasium against Lewistown at 5 p.m.