Busy week continues for Havre High boys

The Havre High boys basketball team is in the midst of a busy stretch that will see them play five games in seven days and as that part of the schedule concludes, the Blue Ponies will wrap it up with back-to-back rivalry games against Rocky Boy and Lewistown.

The Ponies will first look to complete their season sweep of Class B rival Rocky Boy (10-4), a team that Havre defeated earlier this month inside the HHS gymnasium. This time though, the contest will be on the Stars home turf, which will make getting a win for Havre a much more daunting task. Following that matchup, the Ponies will return to the HHS gymnasium Saturday to host Lewistown (10-4, 3-1). Tip-off time is set for 6:30 p.m.

"Anytime you have to go play on the road, that makes it tough," HHS head coach Walynn Burgess said. "Rocky Boy is a solid team so it's not going to be easy.'

Havre won the first meeting between the two teams 66-57 and a big reason why was the coming out party of Mason Rismon, who drained four 3-pointers on his way to scoring 18 points. Kellen Detrick and Clint Owens also added 12 points in the win for the Ponies, as HHS was able to muster an advantage inside.

While the timely shooting of Rismon and the production inside was a huge factor in the first meeting, the Ponies defense was also critical in the win as Havre held Rocky Boy to just 23 points in the second after the Stars scored 34 in the first 16 minutes.

Yet, contaning the Stars is easier said than done. Rocky Boy has three players it counts on for a lot of offensive production and that starts with point guard Frankie Bacon. He and Olin Arkinson give the Stars a talented backcourt that combined for 24 points in the earlier loss to Havre. Another name to watch is Wyatt Caplette, who also scored in double figures in the first meeting.

When the Ponies have the ball, they will also look to test the Rocky Boy defense and one guy that can do that is Jake Huston, who didn't start in the first meeting but has been on a roll of late for HHS. Another key guy in the backcourt is Tommy Brown. He is one of the top assist leaders in Class A basketball and with an offense that features Rismon, Detrick, Huston and others like Owens, Tysen Sangrey and Austin Delarosa, good shots should follow.

"We don't care who is scoring really," Burgess said. "It's always tougher to guard a team that has a few different options. That's what I like about them. We have a bunch of guys that can step up and score and the fact that the defense has a harder time focusing on just one guy is huge and in my opinion, makes us a lot harder to guard."

Rocky Boy will certainly test the Havre defense tonight, however, it will be nothing compared to what the Ponies will see Saturday against Lewistown, a team that made the Class A state semifinals a season ago in addition to routing the Ponies earlier this month 67-45.

The Eagles, who average just under 60 points a game (59.7) are led by two of the most dynamic scorers in Class A boys basketball in Tanner Trafton (19.4 PPG) and Jaden Graham (17.2 PPG). Trafton offers the Eagles more of an inside presence and he ha attempted just 11 3-pointers this season and made just one. Graham, on the other hand, is one of the top perimeter shooters in the state. He is shooting 37 percent from beyond the arc with 23-made field goals from deep, which is nearly two per game. Gage Clinton is another guard that can shoot and is another name to watch Saturday night.

Before Havre will take on Lewistown in its final Central A game of the year Saturday (6:30 p.m.), the Ponies will play Rocky Boy tonight in non-conference action. The game is scheduled to begin at 7:30. Havre is home again next Thursday as well.