Pony girls host CMR in the Corral

Last season, when the Havre High girls basketball team went undefeated, one of the Blue Ponies' toughest games came against CMR and tonight, inside the HHS gymnasium, Havre will battle the Rustlers again in their only matchup of the 2018-19 season.

It will be the final game for both teams before the holiday break. The Ponies come into the game 5-0, while the Rustlers are still looking to recover and get their season back on track after a 1-2 start. Tip-off time between the two teams is set for 7 p.m.

"I think they are going to be pretty solid," HHS head coach Dustin Kraske said of CMR. "They lost a couple of kids that were pretty key to their program, but they have a good, big inside and they have some good guards. I think it's going to be a good challenge for us. We are looking forward to it."

While the Ponies have started the season off strong and are 5-0, Kraske said there are a number of improvements he is looking for his team to make and one those adjustments is hopefully finding a better rhythm on the offensive end of the floor.

"We always want to run the floor of course," Kraske said. "But our 5-on-5 offense needs to find some rhythm, we don't have that right now. We have to try and develop that. We have spent a lot of time talking about sides of the floor and sharing the basketball, so we would expect to do those things a little bit better."

Havre, which comes into the game ranked No. 1 in Class A, according to the poll put out by 406mtsports.com, will be led by Kyndall Keller who is scoring 22 points a game and grabbing an average of six rebounds. Another key contributor is going to be fellow junior Kadia Miller, who is scoring 8.5 points and getting a team-high seven rebounds per game. Others will play key roles include Katie Wirtzberger, Loy Waid, Kylie Walker, Sam Oliver and Jessa Chvilicek.

As the girls team takes on CMR inside the Pony Corral tonight, the Havre High boys basketball team will also be playing CMR, inside the Rustler Fieldhouse in Great Falls. Tip-off between the Pony boys and CMR will also come tonight at 7.

Havre comes into the game having won back-to-back road games against Belgrade last weekend and against Malta Tuesday. However, the Ponies (3-2) will face their biggest challenge of the season in CMR, which entered the week 3-0 and ranked fourth in Class AA boys basketball poll.

Leading the way for the Ponies are sophomore Kellen Detrick, who is scoring 17.5 points per game for Havre and Tommy Brown, who also averages double figures with 10 ppg. Detrick also leads the team with 8.8 rebounds per game. Seniors Tysen Sangrey and Austin Delarosa have also been solid contributors, along with junior Jake Huston, who has provided a scoring spark off the bench this season.

Both Havre teams will be off for the holiday break after taking on CMR. Both teams will be back in action Jan. 3 against Rocky Boy inside the HHS gymnasium.