Ponies home for two

The last time that the Havre High boys basketball team won a game, it was in December against Malta. And this weekend, with the Mustangs on tap, it could be the perfect time for the Blue Ponies to get back into the win column.

Yet, the Ponies have more ahead of them than just hosting the Mustangs Saturday. Prior to Malta coming to town, CMR will be in the HHS gymnasium tonight at 7. Havre will then play Malta Saturday at 4 p.m.

"I think we will have some confidence after beating Malta the first time," HHS head coach Curt Leeds said. "But it's going to be more difficult this time. They didn't have probably their best player the first time we played them and he's back now, so they are going to be a much different team."

As far as CMR is concerned, it will be Havre's first meeting with the Class AA rival this season. The Ponies lost handily, on the road, against Great Falls High in December, and Leeds said the Rustlers should provide another stern test.

"They are having a pretty good year," Leeds said of CMR. "I would say they are a middle of the road team for Class AA. But they are still CMR. They are going to have athletes."

CMR will come into tonight's game with a 6-2 record overall and the Rustlers will be a heavy favorite to score a road win over the Ponies. They will be led into action by Jake Olsen, Sam Vinings, Gamson Rothwell and Russell Gagne.

"I still think we have a lot of chances to improve," Leeds said. "We have to start looking ahead and trying to do as much as we can to get better between now and divisionals. I think we will add some new wrinkles, especially on defense just to have some different looks."

Early in the season, the Ponies were able to keep themselves in a lot of games with defense, but their play on that end of the floor has been less consistent in recent weeks, something Leeds said needs to change down the stretch. During Havre's seven-game losing streak, it has allowed opposing teams to score 59.7 points per game.

"Our defense has kind of gone down a little bit," Leeds said. "So if we can work on playing better defensively and playing better within our zone offense, I think we should be ready come divisional time."

After hosting the Rustlers tonight, Havre will face Malta (5-7) Saturday. The Mustangs are the defending Class B state champions, but haven't played like they did a season ago. However, they have been playing better recently and will be led by Taylor Matthews and Konnor Kuehn.

"We aren't going to hold them to 25 points like we did the first time," Leeds said. "But last weekend, we responded to scoring 25 points with scoring 50 the next game, so if we can score 50 points and get back to playing defense like we did at the start of the year, we can do good things going forward."

The Ponies will look for a balanced scoring effort from their lineup. Jacob Irvin (7.5 ppg) and Tanner Parsons (7.5 ppg) are leading Havre in scoring with Trey Murphy also contributing 6.5 points per game. Ivar Aageson is another key piece. He is scoring 5.8 points and grabbing a team-high 4.2 rebounds per game.

Havre will play the first of two games this weekend tonight against CMR at 7. They will take on Malta Saturday at 4 p.m. Both games will be played inside the HHS gymnasium.