Pony girls look to wrangle Rustlers tonight

It has been a busy 10 days for both Havre High basketball teams, as each Blue Pony squad will play tonight in its fifth game since Jan. 14.

The Pony girls, who currently sport a 10-1 record, will look to improve upon that tonight, as they will host CMR inside the HHS gymnasium. The boys team, on the other hand, is coming off consecutive home defeats and will look to get back in the win column tonight, in Great Falls, also against CMR. That game will be played at the CMR Fieldhouse. Tip-off time for both games tonight is set for 7.

“We will have two great games this week,” HHS girls basketball coach Dustin Kraske said. “With Malta and CMR this week, we get to play two good teams, so that should be fun. It will be neat with CMR because they are a bit of an unknown. We don’t focus on the non-conference a lot, but they are a good team and it’s at home, so it should be great.”

Over the years, the Havre girls have had plenty of success against CMR and will look to continue that trend tonight. In previous seasons, Havre and CMR would play each other twice, but with a new schedule, the Ponies are playing their Class AA rival just once this season.

However, the Lady Rustlers should give the Ponies a competitive game, which is something Havre has seen very little of this season. So far, in 12 games, only two have been decided by 10 points or less. One, was the HHS girls 48-44 win over Fairfield, the other was a seven-point loss to Great Falls High.

The Rustlers (6-4), who already own a win over Great Falls High, should prove to be among the most formidable teams the Ponies have played this season. Led by Mady Skawinski and Tristin Achenbach, CMR has plenty of firepower.

But in terms of scoring the basketball, few teams in Class A at least, have a tandem as strong as Havre senior Naomi Terry, who averages just under 16 points a game and freshman Kyndall Keller, who has upped her scoring average to 12.5 after a 24-point effort against Belgrade last Friday. HHS has also been getting big contributions lately from Ceyara Plante, Danielle Wallace, Kaylee Nystrom, Marca Herron and Kristen Nash.

“I really like the way our team is playing right now,” Kraske said. “We have a lot of different kids coming in and giving us solid minutes. Everyone kind of knows their role now and they are all fitting in nicely.”

For the Havre boys, the series against CMR has been a fond one the past few years, as HHS has captured four straight over the Rustlers. The last meeting between the two teams, which took place last January, saw the Ponies overcome a 17-point second-half deficit to earn the win.

However, this Havre basketball team, which is just 3-9 on the season, isn’t necessarily thinking about its 4-game win streak over CMR, it’s just trying to get a win after dropping consecutive games at home to Belgrade and Livingston this past weekend. The second of which came in heartbreaking fashion, as Livingston drilled a shot at the buzzer to steal an improbable win from the Ponies.

Like Havre, CMR has had a tough go of things in 2016-17 and the Rustlers come into tonight’s game with just a 4-6 record. Yet CMR won its last game, and led by Sam Vining and Dylan Marzion, the Rustlers will be looking to make it two in a row.

Yet the Ponies who will be led into action by Nate Korb (9.7 ppg),Isaac Warp (7.9 ppg), Ivar Aageson (7.6 ppg) and freshman Tanner Parsons, who is averaging 7.6 points a night in four games, will be looking to get back on track with six games, two in conference, remaining on the schedule.

“I think at this point, we are who we are,” Leeds said. “We just have to find a way to play with intensity every night and keep trying to get better.”

Both games between Havre and CMR will start at 7 tonight. The girls game will be played in Havre, the boys game in Great Falls.