Pony girls look to stay unbeaten in the Northeast A

The Havre High girls basketball team has dominated conference play in the Northeast A so far this season. The Blue Ponies have won each conference game by an average of 35.5 points a game so they have not faced much adversity in conference play. A long road trip might provide a challenge for the Ponies this weekend when they head all the way to Billings to play Lewistown at the Metra Saturday.

"It's going to be an awful long day so I would expect us to be ready to play a game on the road," HHS head coach Dustin Kraske said. "Got a big venue, a big gym so let's be ready to go."

The Lewistown Eagles have a 2-6 record and a 2-2 mark in conference play this season. Aniya Ross leads the Eagles averaging 8.2 points a game on 32.2 percent shooting from the field. Brooke Weinheimer averages eight points a game for the Eagles this season. While the Eagles do not have the best record, Kraske believes they will play the Ponies hard Saturday.

"They play incredibly hard. They're way better than how they showed in our gym so there'll be a lot of things they do that will provide us some challenges," Kraske said. "We blitzed them up here so they'll be prepared for that. We'll do some different things for them defensively."

After winning the state title last season, the Ponies have excelled this season with an 11-1 record and a 6-0 mark in the Northeast A. Players such as Yelena Miller and Jade Wendland are having excellent seasons for the Ponies. Miller leads the Ponies averaging 12.1 points and 8.9 rebounds a game this season. North Star transfer Wendland is averaging 10.9 points a game on 36.3 percent shooting from the field.

The Ponies and Eagles have already faced off earlier this season. Dec. 21 at Havre High Gymnasium, the Ponies raced out early on their way to a 66-20 victory. Wendland and Miller each scored 14 points in the win while Weinheimer scored four points for the Eagles. If the Ponies are going to complete the season sweep this weekend, they will need everybody to step up.

"Our role guys got to get ready to go," Kraske said. "We got to be able to continue to share the ball and then just collectively play defense and rebound. We've got to strive to continue to get the details of the game understood and play them better."

The Ponies will play Lewistown this Saturday at the Metra in Billings. The game tips off at 6 p.m.