HHS boys host Class B Eagles tonight

After playing nine of its first 11 games of the season on the road, the Havre High boys basketball team has enjoyed some home cooking over the past two weeks, but tonight against Fairfield, the Blue Ponies five-game homestand will come to an end.

So far, it has been a solid stretch for the Ponies, who beat both Belgrade and Malta at home, while losing to Livingston and Great Falls High. Tonight, Fairfield will storm into the HHS gymnasium with a 10-3 overall record to face Havre (6-7, 2-3). Tip-off time is set for 7.

“It has been nice getting to play some home games,” Burgess said. “The support that we have had has been tremendous and we have really been able to feed off that positive energy.”

Versus the Eagles, Havre will renew its yearly home-and-home. Tonight’s game is the first meeting between the two teams in the next two weeks. Havre will travel to Fairfield next week as it wraps up its regular season schedule, giving the Ponies two chances to face another high-quality opponent before divisionals.

“They are really well-disciplined and fundamentally sound,” HHS head coach Walynn Burgess said. “I have known coach (Jordan) Ratliff for a long time. He has been a good buddy of mine and so that will be fun to be on the sidelines against him. They rebound really well and they are a big football team where a lot of their athletes come out and play basketball.”

When it comes to the District 1B, the Eagles have lost just once this season and that came last Friday against Choteau. However, Fairfield followed that up with a rout of Belt and are led by a lineup that features Keeley Bake, Dawson Allen, Aiden McDaniel and Ryder Meier, a University of Montana football signee.

“Keeley Bake is there, Ryder Meier, Dawson Allen is another that is really tough,” Burgess said. “They are well-coached and they are a team that is going to be playing at the state tournament in Class B. (Keeley) Bake, he’s one of the best point guards in the state. He’s going to be playing college basketball somewhere.”

Havre will counter Fairfield with its three-guard lineup which has been highly productive recently and includes senior Tommy Brown, along with juniors Jake Huston and Mason Rismon. Huston has scored in double figures in three of his past four games and is averaging 9.6 points and 2.6 rebounds on the season.

Brown, the point guard, has been another critical part of the offense, and he is the Ponies third-leading scorer with an average of 8.1 to go along with 4.5 assists per game and 3.4 boards. For his part, Rismon has been a dynamic outside shooter and leads the Ponies in 3-point makes with 19. He is also shooting 39 percent, which leads the team for players with at least 10 attempts from beyond the arc. Huston and Brown are also solid 3-point shooters and together, those three have averaged 3.6 3-pointers per game (47-of-123) and shot 38 percent combined from beyond the arc.

Other players that will need to contribute in a big way for the Ponies to knock off the Eagles are seniors Austin Delarosa (5.8 PPG) and Tysen Sangrey (5.1 PPG), who will be key in the battle on the boards. Clint Owens (3.5 PPG, 3.3 RPG) has also been effective in his role of the bench inside.

After the Ponies who on Fairfield tonight, they will travel to Rocky Boy Thursday (7:30 p.m.) before returning home to take on Lewistown Saturday, meaning Havre will play five games in a week's time.

“It’s kind of a strange week,” Burgess said. “Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, and that is a lot of games in a short time. But we try to do some things with prevention to be smart with players and during the summer, we try to play a lot of games so we can get ready for the grind of the season.”

Tip-off between the Ponies and Eagles will be at 7 inside the Pony Corral.