Pony hoops closes out December with big home games tonight

With doubleheaders this past weekend at the Havre High Gymnasium, the Havre community showed up to support both Havre High basketball teams. Now the Blue Ponies will need that same support tonight when both teams play against their rival, Lewistown.

"I think the band will be fired up, the crowd will be fired up," HHS girls basketball head coach Dustin Kraske said. "Doubleheaders always bring that out so it'll be fun."

The Lewistown girls basketball team enters the game with a 1-2 record this season. One player that the Ponies will have to watch out for tonight will be Aniya Ross who was honorable mention all-conference last season. Kraske is also intrigued by the Eagles this season as they will have a new look with their new coach.

"It's a brand-new program. They got a lot of excitement down there," Kraske said. "I know they'll be ready to go so it's fun to play them. We look forward to it."

The Ponies are off to a strong start this season coming off their state championship. Through the first few weeks, the Ponies are 4-1 and have a 2-0 record in the Northeast A. The Ponies will be looking to repeat last season where they swept Lewistown with an average margin of victory of 35 points.

The Ponies will also look to continue their play from this weekend. After an overtime loss to Billings Central the previous weekend, the Ponies dominated Glendive and Sidney this past weekend. If they can build off the weekend, tonight should be another strong showing for the Ponies.

"We got to continue to get better," Kraske said. "We have to have a good practice on Monday which I'm sure we will and continue to play off the momentum from (this weekend) into Tuesday's game."

The HHS boys basketball team will also play Lewistown tonight. The Eagles are off to a strong start as they are 4-0. They also return several players from last season such as all-state player Royce Robinson. Bryce Graham and Luke Clinton also return for the Eagles after all-conference seasons so HHS boys basketball head coach Walynn Burgess expects a battle tonight.

"They're real deep. They've got high-end kids," Burgess said. "It's going to be a real good test for us going into Christmas break and we're excited to have them here."

The Ponies are 3-2 to start the season and are 1-1 in the Northeast A. If the young Ponies are going to compete tonight, they will need to be resilient.

"We just got to compete. That's what we really got to do," Burgess said. "They're going to come out, they're going to make their runs and we just got to be able to weather some storms."

Tonight's doubleheader at HHS Gymnasium will begin at 6 p.m. with the HHS girls basketball team playing Lewistown. The HHS boys basketball team will then play Lewistown at 7:30 p.m.