Pony boys win key Northeast A rematches

The start to the second half of the Northeast A season was a good one for the Havre High boys. The Blue Ponies earned a sweep of Glendive and Miles City this weekend in the Havre High gymnasium.

Havre pulled off the pair of wins, beating Glendive Friday in a 77-73 barn-burner and upsetting Miles City Saturday 56-44. The wins from the weekend moved the Ponies into second place in the Northeast A standings, and also exacted some revenge from losses to both teams in last month on the road.

The pair of matchups were in no way easy to win for Havre, and because of that HHS head coach Walynn Burgess was proud of what his team accomplished on the court.

"Against Glendive, it was a really good team win," Burgess said. "They came out and are real scrappy. They might be young, but they're going to be a really good team going forward. They made us really work for it. Against Miles City, I mean, they're the conference leaders for a reason. It was just awesome to watch them do that work in the fourth quarter, get stops and executing with confidence."

The game against the Red Devils kicked off the big weekend for the Ponies. But it ended in a close game that came down to the final seconds. Havre was up 56-44 at the end of the third quarter, but Glendive pushed back to get within two points with 41 seconds left in the fourth period.

But seniors Mason Rismon and Tyrel Kjersem added a free throw each to seal the victory with 11.6 seconds left in the game. From there, the defense held and the Blue Ponies knocked off the Red Devils.

Kjersem's free throw was clutch for HHS. Kjersem had a lot of pressure in his hands, but he used that to help his team to the victory.

"I was just thinking that making that free throw would seal the game and give us another conference win," Kjersem said. "I feel like we did pretty good. We had a rough patch in the second and the beginning of the third a bit, but we battled and got through the hard parts."

If the fourth stanza sounded close, the first and second quarters were, too.

Havre started down by two, but Rismon put up a free throw and a 3-pointer to take the lead early. Glendive snagged the lead right back, then Josh Warp, Kellen Detrick, Jake Huston and Rismon drove to the basket to keep the Ponies in the game and the lead at the end of the first period 14-13. The second kept that intensity, with Glendive dropping baskets and Clint Owens helping to keep Havre within pace, but the Red Devils took the lead at the buzzer with a trey.

The Blue Ponies took the third quarter to go on a 13-0 run and kept it going to take the lead.

Rismon put up a great performance to elevate Havre to the No. 2 spot in the Northeast A and he felt great about the win over the Red Devils.

"I feel good," Rismon said. "Definitely nice to get the revenge on them. We didn't play our best and didn't hit as many shots as we would've liked, but we came out, played hard with lots of energy and that got us the dub."

Saturday's game against Miles City was another heated conference showdown.

Havre and the Cowboys kept it back-and-forth to open the first stanza, but Kjersem, Huston and Owens made field goals and free throws to stay up 11-9 going into the second quarter. Detrick and Warp followed up with some great baskets to push the Ponies ahead, leading by 10 at the break, 26-16.

In the third, Detrick and Owens scored key buckets to try and keep Havre up, but the Cowboys came back with some baskets of their own and a three at the buzzer to lead 36-33 at the end of the third period.

Then Huston, Detrick, Owens and Warp gave Havre a great boost by going on a 12-0 run to lead 45-38 with 4:07 left in the game. Miles City tried to push back, but Kjersem, Detrick and Huston kept scoring to seal the game, including a Kjersem trey with 50 seconds left.

Owens made the majority of the points in Havre's 12-0 run in the fourth stanza and he was proud of how him and the team did against the Northeast A's No. 1.

"I feel pretty good about the game," Owens said. "We got rebounds, got to the line, played hard as a team and got two W's on the weekend."

Against Glendive, Rismon led Havre with 19 points, followed by Detrick with 18 and Huston with 17. Versus Miles City, Detrick led the Ponies with 16 points.

Next up, the Blue Ponies (8-4) play against CMR in the Havre High Gymnasium Thursday, followed by another matchup at home versus Malta Saturday.

Havre 77, Glendive 73

Glendive 13 15 14 29 - 73

Havre 14 13 29 21 - 77

Glendive – Basil Crisafulli 2, Riley Basta 20, Jentz Scarpholt 3, Landon Palmer 5, Micheal Murphy 15, Parker Buckley 5, Max Eaton 14, Taven Coon 9. Totals: 28 9-13 73

Havre – Josh Warp 6, Jake Huston 17, Tyrel Kjersem 4, Nolan Lotton 2, Mason Rismon 19, Kellen Detrick 18, Caden Jenkins 3, Clint Owens 8. Totals: 24 22-36 77.

Havre 56, Miles City 44

Miles City 9 7 20 8 - 44

Havre 11 15 7 12 - 56

Miles City – Ben Glasscock 3, Dalton Polesky 2, Quest Savery 8, Haden Warren 9, Logan Muri 17, Jayden Venable 5. Totals: 14 10-17 44.

Havre – Josh Warp 7, Jake Huston 9, Tyrel Kjersem 8, Mason Rismon 8, Kellen Detrick 16, Clint Owens 8. Totals: 15 22-35 56.