HHS girls chase Eastern A title

After falling just short of a three-peat as state champions last year, the Havre High girls basketball team hopes to get back to the top this postseason. In order to qualify for the state tournament, the Blue Ponies will need a strong performance in the Eastern A Divisional at the Metra in Billings.

The tournament, which will also be played at Lockwood High School, will run today through Saturday, with the top four teams moving on to state.

"We're ready to go," said Havre head coach Dustin Kraske. "The kids are fired up, they've had a good season and this is the reward for all their hard work."

Havre finished third in the tournament last year, but still qualified for the state tournament. The Ponies now head into this year's tournament as the No. 1 seed thanks to their strong regular season where they finished 8-0 in the Northeast A and 12-2 overall.

The Ponies had one of the best offenses in the conference during the regular season as they averaged 57.4 points per game. The Havre offense is led by Yelena Miller (14.1 ppg) and Sadie Filius (10.9 ppg). Miller also averages five rebounds a game and has six blocks on the season. Loy Waid is also an impactful player for the Ponies as she leads the team with 5.6 rebounds a game and 10 blocks on the season.

Havre will face the winner of the Livingston-Lewistown game, which opened the Eastern A for the girls today at 9 a.m. Livingston finished last in the Southeast A as they went 0-6 in conference play and finished with an overall record of 5-8. Lewistown finished tied for last in the Northeast A at 2-6 in conference play and 3-10 overall. In the teams' lone matchup this season, Livingston won, 49-37. The loser of this game will not only be eliminated from competing for the tournament championship, but for the consolation trophy, as well.

To keep its season alive, Lewistown will need to do better on offense than its season average of 36 points a game. Aniya Ross, who averages 11.3 points a game, might be able to give them a boost. Livingston will rely on Kodie Vondra (9.5 ppg) and Taylor Young (8.6 ppg) to lead their offense.

If Havre plays Livingston, it would be their first meeting this season. If Havre faces off with Lewistown, Havre will be playing a team they defeated twice this season by at least 30 points. Either way, Kraske will be helping his players improve in time for the tournament.

"We're working quite a bit on our footwork," Kraske said. "Just a lot of fundamental work that we can do better and improve upon."

At 1:30 p.m. Billings Central and Miles City face off. Billings Central finished first in the Southeast A with a 6-1 conference record and a 13-1 overall record. On the other end of the spectrum, Miles City finished tied for last in the Northeast A with a 2-6 conference record and 2-10 overall record. Billings Central dominated their first matchup this season with a 62-16 win.

Billings Central's offense (54.5 ppg) will be led by the dynamic Mya Hansen (15.7 ppg) who shoots 52 percent from two, 50 percent from the 3-point line and 90 percent from the free-throw line. Miles City's low-scoring offense (35.2 ppg) will need Lainey Smith (9.4 ppg) and Reagan Laplante (6.8 ppg) to overperform if they are going to have a chance at victory.

The winner of that game will play the winner of the Glendive-Laurel game, which will take place right after at 3:30 p.m. Laurel finished third in the Southeast A with a 3-3 conference record and 10-4 overall record. Glendive finished second in the Northeast A with a 4-4 conference record and 7-8 overall record. It will be their second meeting in less than a week as Laurel defeated Glendive, 36-30, last Saturday

Glendive will need to do better than their average of 36.5 points per game if they are going to match Laurel's offense that averages 53.9 points a game. One way they can do that is turn to Jillian Litwiller, who averages 15.5 points a game. Hardin and Sidney then play Thursday at 9 a.m. Hardin finished second in the Southeast A with a 4-2 conference record and 10-3 overall record. Sidney went 3-4 in the Northeast A to finish third and had an overall record of 6-8. This will be the first meeting between the two teams this season. Hardin has one of the best offenses in the conference as they average 56.7 points a game. If Sidney wants to keep up, they will need to limit Kamber Good Luck (13.3 ppg) and Aiyana Big Man (10.4 ppg) from Hardin.

As the Eastern A divisional plays out, Kraske not only hopes for the Ponies to win the title, but to gain experience that will be valuable if they qualify for state.

"Anytime you can play a game against a good team, you're working toward getting better so I think that every game we play at the divisional tournament will do just that," Kraske said. "If we are fortunate enough to get invited to the state tournament, it'll be because our kids worked hard and played well together."

Havre will begin play in the Eastern A divisional Thursday at 11 a.m. against the winner of the Lewistown-Livingston game. The tournament runs through Saturday's championship game.