Blue Ponies battle Rangers, Panthers

Last week, new Havre High head basketball coach Walynn Burgess got his first taste of Class A basketball. This weekend, he will get another new experience coaching in the Central A conference.

That's because of the fact that the Blue Ponies will play back-to-back conference road games this weekend, starting tonight with Livingston at 7:30 and followed by a showdown with Belgrade Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

"We are going on the road and we are going to have to be ready to play," Burgess said. "Belgrade is going to be a tough place to play, and Livingston is going to be tough. They are winnable games, though, if we go down and do the things that we are supposed to do."

One thing that will go a long way towards determining if the Havre boys win any games this weekend will be their defense. Havre allowed 94 points and 17 3-pointers to Billings Central, the Class A runner-up, last week, before turning around and holding Glendive to just 32 points in a 24-point win at the Havre High gymnasium last Saturday.

Through four games, the Rangers are 2-2 with wins over Townsend and Miles City, as well as blowout losses at the hands of Hardin and Billings Central. In those four games, Livingston is scoring 51 points a night and is led by Brendon Johnson, who is scoring 18 points per game for the Rangers and averaging 3.25 3-point field goals per game. For the season, he is shooting 54 percent from beyond the arc.

Johnson is also the Rangers leading rebounder with 6.8 per game. Morgan Rosberg also averages double figures (11 PPG, 4.2 RPG) and is a 40 percent shooter from deep. As a team, Livingston is knocking down 34 percent from 3-point range, with 25 makes or an average of more than six per game.

"They like to get up and down," Burgess said. "We have to make sure that we transition well on defense or they are going to beat us. They have a lot of quick guards and they get up and down and they are very hectic on defense."

After taking on the Rangers, the Havre defense will match up against a Belgrade team that scores 43 points a game. The Panthers don't have a lot of dynamic offensive players, however, they do have Easton Page, who is scoring 13.7 per game. Unlike Livingston, though, the Panthers aren't a great shooting team and are hitting just 22 percent of their shots from deep to start the season. In three games, the Panthers have scored more than 40 just once and that was 64 points in a win over Miles City. In the defeats to Hardin and Laurel, Belgrade scored just 29 and 33 points, respectively.

"Easton Page is their No. 1 scorer and he's really explosive getting to the hoop," Burgess said. "He has one of the top shooting percentages in the conference. So we have to get up on him and be able to handle him. They have a really good coach in Mike Demming. He knows a lot, and we have to be on top of our game. We are playing in the big dome, the sports center, so it will be a challenge."

The defense will be a big focus for the Ponies, but when Havre has the ball at their end of the floor, there will be plenty of scoring options highlighted by Kellen Detrick, who comes into tonight's game at Livingston averaging a team-high 14 points and eight rebounds. Tommy Brown is also averaging double figures in scoring for HHS with an average of 11.7 per night. Brown has also been stellar from beyond the arc, connecting on 4-of-5 3-pointers. As a team, the Ponies are knocking down 31 percent of their treys.

While Detrick and Brown are the two leading scorers, three others have been contributing consistently so far and those are Tysen Sangrey, who is averaging eight points, as well as Austin Delarosa and Jake Huston, who are each averaging seven. One area Havre will need to improve is turnovers. In the first two games, the Ponies turned it over 36 times, for an average of 18 per game. That can't happen against Livingston and Belgrade if HHS is hoping to win one or even two games on the early-season road trip.

"We want to go down there and get one," Burgess said. "It would be great to get two but we can just go down and execute, we should give ourselves a chance."

The Ponies will play Livingston tonight at 7:30. Tip-off time with Belgrade will be set for approximately 3:30 p.m, on Saturday.