Ponies Stampede into Billings

All season long, the Havre High girls basketball team has played like a team on a mission. And after going 18-0 in the regular season, the Blue Ponies are ready to take the next step.

That next step is the Eastern A Divisional Tournament in Billings. It's a tournament that will decide if Havre makes another trip to the Class A State Tournament and whether or not HHS can bring home its first divisional championship since 2015. Havre will play tonight, inside the Rimrock Auto Arena at 8 p.m. against Sidney or Miles City.

While the Ponies know when they will play, they won't know who they will play until this afternoon, following the conclusion of the first-round game between Sidney and Miles City. The winner will likely be Miles City (8-7, 4-5), as Sidney comes in winless on the season, including an 0-10 mark within the Eastern A conference. Havre beat Sidney in the season-opening game 71-15.

If Havre does end up facing Miles City, it will have a couple of key players to deal with such as Mack Rask, who is the leading scorer with 7.3 points per game, along with Kyra Oakland, who is just behind her with 7.2. Ashley Vennable and Madison Rask also average more than six points a game for a team that won six games in a row at one point.

"They are really athletic and I like them a lot on film," HHS head coach Dustin Kraske said of a potential matchup with Miles City. "They are tough and hard-nose. They play really hard. If we play them, we will have our hands full. It will be really fun."

If the Ponies (18-0, 6-0) get past Miles City (8-7, 4-5) or Sidney (0-18, 0-10) in the quarterfinals, they will face either Lewistown or Laurel in the semifinals. Havre has beaten Laurel at divisionals the last two years and also swept Lewistown during the regular season. The Locomotives (10-8, 8-2) are a solid team that has two talented scorers in Aspen Cotter (13.9 ppg) and Sammi Spitzer (10.1 ppg). Lewistown (9-9, 2-4) is a similar team and depends a lot on Anna Zimmer (11.1 ppg) and Hanna Hays (9.8 ppg).

If Havre advances past that game, which would be Friday night at 8, the Ponies will play in the championship game, Saturday at 8 p.m. Yet, if the Ponies lose in the quarterfinals or semifinals, hope won't be lost. Havre will just need to win two games, including the consolation semifinals, which are played simultaneously at 10:30 a.m.

"Our goal coming in is just to get invited to the next tournament, the state tournament," Kraske said. "That's the only goal that we have right now. We just want to win two games and get to the state tournament. Then, maybe, we can think about setting a new goal."

After an undefeated regular season, it wouldn't be a surprise to see the Ponies reach that goal. They will be led by the second-leading scorer in Class A girls basketball, Kyndall Keller, who is averaging 18.1 points per game. However, as a team, the Ponies are averaging just over 60 per game. That is thanks in large part to seniors Danielle Wallace (10.0 ppg) Marca Herron (8.8 ppg) and Kaylee Nystrom (6.7 ppg). Havre has also gotten consistent contributions from Ryen Olson, Kadia Miller, Kyley Verploegen and Katie Wirtzberger.

One thing that makes Havre particularly dangerous on the offensive end is its ability to shoot the 3-pointer. Herron is currently second in Class A, with a 44.7 3-point percentage. Keller also ranks fourth. She is shooting 41.7 percent from beyond the arc.

"We don't really try to focus too much on everyone else," Kraske said. "We want to work on getting ourselves to be better. That's our main focus. We have had a good season, we just need to go out and play hard, play well defensively and keep playing like we have all season. If we do that, we will be fine."

Another team that shoots the ball extremely well in the tournament is Hardin (14-3, 7-3). The Bulldogs scored 58.2 per game during the season and are paced by Karissa DunShane, who shoots 47 percent from deep and averages 17.3 points per game. Sharmayne Hardy is the Bulldogs' other top scoring threat. She averages 10.7. Hardin will play Belgrade Thursday at 12 p.m. The Panthers (8-10, 4-2) finished second to Havre in the Central A. They are led by Gabby Weber (13.1 ppg) and Klah Hohenstein (11.5 ppg).

The other quarterfinal game will feature Billings Central (12-6, 8-2), the top-seeded team from the East, against the winner of Glendive and Livingston, the other opening round game. Glendive (4-12, 1-7) scored just 39.1 points per game during the season and has just one scorer in double figures, Savannah Toms (10.4 ppg). Livingston (5-13, 0-6) owns wins over Laurel and Miles City, so they are no pushover. The Rangers boast Kodia Vondra (11.4 ppg) and Danielle Babcox, who averages 6.8 points and 7.8 rebounds per game.

Livingston and Glendive will play at noon today, before returning to play Billings Central inside the Metra at 6:30 p.m. Olivia Moten-Schell is another elite scorer and she comes in averaging 14.6 points a night for the Rams. Billings Central doesn't have another scorer who averages in double figures, but they have four others that score five or more, in addition to the third-best scoring defense in the tournament.

The winner of that quarterfinal will meet Hardin or Belgrade in the semifinals. The championship game will be played at 8 p.m. Saturday. The consolation game is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. The top four teams from the Eastern A advance to the state tournament March 8-10 in Great Falls, the site of the Ponies' last Class A state championship.