Ponies play Panthers, Rangers

The Havre High boys basketball team got an important road victory Monday, but it will be even more important if the Blue Ponies can score at least one victory at home this weekend.

Havre will get two chances at that win, with the first opportunity coming tonight against Belgrade. Tip-off time is set for 7:30. The Ponies will also host Livingston Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Both games will be held inside the HHS gymnasium.

“These are very important games for us,” HHS head coach Curt Leeds said. “Right now, we are 2-2 and if we can get at least one win, we can stay in third place. If we can get two, that would put us in a really good position because we would have four wins, and I think five wins will get us at least third place.”

While beating Belgrade might seem like a tall order, considering Havre lost 63-34 in the first meeting between the two teams Dec. 16, if the Ponies pull it off, they would find themselves tied with the Panthers atop the standings, as Belgrade enters tonight at 7-3 overall and 3-0 in the Central A.

“Two wins would be really nice for us to get,” Leeds said. “But we really need to make sure we get at least one to keep ourselves in a good position.”

If Havre is going to have a chance to get one of those wins tonight, it will need to find a way to contain a Panther offense that scores 58 points a night. More than that, Havre must find a way to contain Dawson Fowler (18.6 ppg), Brock Salisbury (15.0 ppg) and Trey Layman (10.1 ppg).

“The biggest thing against them is not to give them a bunch of open looks,” Leeds said. “Fowler and Salisbury are really good shooters. And Layman the big thing for us is going to be to try and keep him off the boards.”

The Ponies will not only need to play well on the defensive end, but they will need to score more than the 44 points a game they have averaged so far this season. In fact, a good benchmark for Havre this season has been 50 points. In games where HHS has reached the 50-point mark, its 3-1, with the only loss coming in the season-opener against Sidney. When held to less than 60 points, Havre is 0-6.

Unfortunately, Havre will need to try and keep with Belgrade minus its second-leading scorer in Jacob LaBrie, who will miss both games this weekend due to injury. That means the Ponies will need more of what they’ve gotten from Nate Korb, who leads the team in points (9.4) and rebounds (4.6). Isaac Warp, who is the third-leading scorer at 7.8 per game, has also been solid and leads with the team with 18 3-point field goals.

Ivar Aageson and Ryan Bakke will also play key roles, as will freshman Tanner Parsons, who scored 10 points for Havre in its win over Browning Monday.

“I thought he did well,” Leeds said of Parsons. “He had some freshman turnovers, but he did some good things. He can shoot the ball. We lost LaBrie, who can shoot it, but we added Parsons, so it’s not really like we lost anything. We gained a shooter and we lost a shooter, but it would have been nice to have them both together.”

While Havre could tie Belgrade for first with a win over the Panthers, a win over Livingston Saturday may be even more important. The Rangers also beat Havre the first time around, 46-38 and another victory would give Livingston the tiebreaker which could matter as both teams try to avoid finishing in 4th place and being forced to take part in a play-in game at the Eastern A Divisional.

One of the keys for Havre against the Rangers will be slowing down Jakim Ricketts, the top scorer for Livingston with 12.8 points. Rydell Floyd and Austin Parker are two other threats for a Livingston team that is shooting 29 percent from deep and 42 percent from inside the arc.

“We just have to try and stop (Ricketts) from getting to the basket and getting open looks,” Leeds said. “We just can’t turn the ball over against either of these teams like we did the first time. We just had too many mistakes.”

Havre and Belgrade will play tonight at 7:30. Tip-off time with Livingston Saturday is 3:30 p.m. HHS travels to CMR Tuesday.