Havre girls basketball wins sixth in a row

The Havre High girls basketball team has been rolling the past few weeks with five straight wins. Even with finals cutting into their practice time throughout the week, the Blue Ponies did not slow down as they defeated Fairfield, 64-33, Friday night at Havre High Gymnasium.

“You could tell a little bit tonight that we weren’t 100 percent engaged in what we were doing but I thought the kids played hard,” HHS head coach Dustin Kraske. “Very pleased with the effort. Thought everybody came in and played well.”

The Ponies started strong with a 6-0 run to start the game. Avery Carlson scored the first bucket for Havre and Yelena Miller made a pair of layups to stretch out the lead. The Eagles finally got on the scoreboard with a layup from Alexa Johnson, but they were unable to gain traction.

With an 8-3 lead with under four minutes left in the quarter, the Ponies looked to hold onto momentum. Over the final few minutes, the Ponies went on an 11-3 run for a 19-6 lead at the end of the quarter. While the Havre offense lit up the scoreboard, it was their defense that allowed them to begin pulling away early in the game.

“If you want to have a good team at the end of the year, you got to be able to play some defense and they’ve bought into that,” Kraske said.

The Ponies continued to dominate with an 11-0 run in the second quarter. Miller continued to play well and Lacy Preeshl made an impact as they both scored four points during the quarter. The Havre defense continued to play strong as the Eagles did not score until the final seconds of the half with a pair of free throws.

“We just worked hard and put pressure on the ball,” Miller said about the team’s defensive performance in the second quarter. “We kept up with them, set our own pace and just played the game.”

With a 30-8 lead heading to the second half, the Ponies were on cruise control the rest of the way. The Eagles did outscore the Ponies in the third quarter, but Havre still had a 48-21 lead heading to the final quarter. Even with their backups in during the final eight minutes, Havre kept the Eagles at bay to pull away for the 64-33 win. Miller finished the game with 16 points to lead the Ponies while Carlson scored 11 points. Tori Jones led Fairfield with 8 points.

The win was the sixth in a row for the Ponies and they are now 8-1 this season. Since an overtime loss to Billings Central on the road last month, the Ponies have hit their stride winning all of their games by an average margin of victory of 30.2 points.

“We’re just working on our fundamentals and just getting the little things done and working hard,” Miller said.

While the Ponies are playing well, Kraske believes there are still things to improve in order to be at the top of their game when the postseason arrives at the end of February.

“We just got to keep getting the details of the game down. Jump into the basketball, kicking your foot out defensively, things like that,” Kraske said. “We just have to work on the little things to help us get better. Our communication tonight could have been better so just things like that make a good basketball team a great basketball team.”

The Ponies will look to keep their winning streak going when they head to Glendive this Friday night. Havre also played at Sidney Saturday.

Havre 64, Fairfield 33

FAI - 6 2 13 12 - 33

HAV - 19 11 18 16 - 64

FAI - Tori Jones 8, Alexa Johnson 7, Toryn Martinez 5, Avery Schubartt 3, Avery Pitcher 3, Emma Woods 3, Emma Schenk 2, Natalie Kolste 2.

HAV - Yelena Miller 16, Avery Carlson 11, Emilee Chambliss 9, Kyanna Jarvis 8, Jade Wendland 7, Molly Huse 6, Lacy Preeshl 4, Sadie Filius 3.