Havre boys take down Eagles at home

With the regular season winding down, the Havre High boys basketball team is looking to end it on a good note, both in the Northeast A and overall. After hitting 4-2 in conference, the Blue Ponies looked to win out in the Northeast A to secure the No. 2 seed and etch a good spot in the Eastern A Divisional Tournament later this month, starting with win over the Sidney Eagles.

And Havre accomplished that, snagging a victory over the Eagles Saturday in the Havre High Gymnasium, 74-47 and sweeping Sidney for the season. The win not only gives the Ponies an improved conference record, but keeps them one game ahead of Lewistown, too.

The win over the Eagles was a nice one to keep ahead and HHS head coach Walynn Burgess was proud of the work his team put forward on the court Saturday.

"It's a good overall team win," Burgess said. "Even seeing those young guys coming in at the end of the game and still seeing the guys that have been playing all year for long minutes, our guys cheering for them, it's just a good team quality to have. They celebrate the good things we do, so it was good for them to get in."

Havre and Sidney started the game off pretty close, with junior Josh Warp scoring early, while four different Blue Ponies combined to go on a quick 7-0 run, alongside some baskets from junior Clint Owens to keep a lead. Meanwhile, Boston Peters and Jerome Entz put up some points to try and stay in the game but were still down 15-8 at the end of the first quarter.

In the second stanza, junior Kellen Detrick, senior Mason Rismon and Owens added some more baskets to go on an 8-0 unanswered run to kick it off. Warp and Detrick followed up and added some more points, while senior Tyrel Kjersem and junior Nolan Lotton put up baskets of their own. Cooper McGlothlin worked to help elevate the Eagles closer to the Ponies, but Havre kept the lead at 37-17 to end the first half.

Warp had a big first half, putting up 10 points and one of the two 3-pointers for HHS. Overall, Warp was happy with the effort the team and he put forward against Sidney, while setting his sets ahead for a tough game in the future, too.

"It feels good," Warp said. "The conference games are the important ones, but next weekend, Browning's going to be tough and they came here for a hard-fought game, so we know they're going to be ready, so we got to get ready for that."

After the break, the Ponies came out and went on two big runs to help Havre lead 53-27 at the end of the third period.

Then in the fourth quarter, HHS exploded on a 9-0 run, with Rismon kicking it off and Detrick putting up seven of the nine points in the run. From there, Josh Currie, senior Quinn Springer, Caden Jenkins and Nolan Lotton added more points to the board to make the home crowd proud. Sidney added quite a few baskets of their own, but still fell to the Ponies in the end.

Detrick once again had a big game for Havre, totaling 25 points against the Eagles, while Warp followed with 10. At the end of the day, Detrick was glad to pick up another win in the Northeast A alongside his team.

"We feel really good," Detrick said. "We got to keep going. We got a big game next weekend, so we got to keep our heads straight and attack next week."

And Friday, Havre hits the road to play a tough opponent in the Browning Indians down in Browning, while Saturday, the Blue Ponies come back home to play the Fairfield Eagles in the Havre High Gymnasium, which will be the senior night celebration, too.

Havre 74, Sidney 47

Sidney 8 9 10 20 - 47

Havre 15 22 16 21 - 74

Sidney – Cooper McGlothlin 14, Carter Johnson 2, Boston Peters 9, Jerome Entz 15, Parker Sinks 2, Kaston LeRoy 5. Totals: 18 7-16 47.

Havre – Josh Warp 10, Jake Huston 5, Tyrel Kjersem 6, Nolan Lotton 5, Mason Rismon 7, Josh Currie 2, Kellen Detrick 25, Caden Jenkins 5, Clint Owens 5, Quinn Springer 4. Totals: 28 16-24 74.