State A: Havre girls roll, Pony boys fall

MISSOULA - It wasn’t the Four Seasons Arena, in Great Falls, but the Havre High girls looked right at home in Missoula.

Thursday afternoon, the Blue Ponies began defense of their 2021 state championship with a 66-37 thrashing of the Browning Indians in the first round of the Class A state tournament in Dahlberg Arena. The win pushed Havre into tonight’s semifinal where they’ll face the Dillon Beavers at 8 p.m.

But, as lopsided as the game turned out to be, as it was Havre’s third win over Browning this season, it wasn’t as easy as it looked according to head coach Dustin Kraske.

“We knew it would be a physical game,” Krase said. “Browning plays hard. I thought our kids handled that pretty well. I think it certainly helped that we played them twice already. I thought we were as prepared as we could be.”

Havre opened the game with a 3-pointer from Sadie Filius, and the Ponies clamped down on defense, leading 11-4 after eight minutes. Avery Carlson then banged home a trey to open the second stanza, but Browning hit two triples of their own to fight back. From there however, Havre started to work the ball inside to Yelena Miller, while Filius hit a runner late as the Ponies extended their lead to 31-19 at the break.

In the third quarter, Jade Wendland knocked down a trey early, while Miller was a workhorse in the paint, as the Ponies’ lead grew to 42-23.

“I thought we came out to start the second half really well,” Kraske said. “We made some adjustments and we played pretty well offensively the rest of the game.”

Indeed. Havre shot 47 percent in the second half, as Lacy Preeshl scored two quick buckets in the fourth stanza, and ultimately the Ponies won going away. Filius led the Ponies with 18 points, while Miller scored 12 points while grabbing eight rebounds. Carlson finished with nine as well, while Preeshl pulled down eight board. Defensively, Havre also held Browning 18 percent, while also forcing the Indians, who finished third in the Northwest A, into 20 turnovers.

Meanwhile, Thursday’s win sets up a battle with Dillon, who beat Butte Central. It’s Havre’s 10th straight Class A semifinal berth.. And while the Ponies will scout the Beavers as best they can, Kraske said it’s just as much about what his team has to do to get to Saturday night’s championship game.

“We just want to get better,” Kraske said. “Play better than we did today. We just need to keep executing what we do. That’s always our goal.”

MISSOULA - The Havre Blue Ponies have been on a roll this postseason. Unfortunately, they ran into a team that has been on a n even bigger one.

Thursday afternoon at the Class A state tournament, the Western A champion Butte Central Maroons, behind a huge game from star scorer Dougie Peoples, took down the Blue Ponies 61-49 inside Dahlberg Arena. The loss dropped Havre into a loser-out game this morning against the Polson Pirates. It also ended a three-game, postseason winning streak by the Ponies, but, head coach Walynn Burgess was plenty proud of his team and how they fought Thursday.

"The kids fought hard," Burgess said. "It would have been easy to give up down 23 points, but this team isn't made like that. They have pride, and that showed today because they battled right to the end."

The Ponies opened the game with a 2-0 lead, but the Maroons responded with an 8-0 run, including two 3-pointers from Peoples, who finished with a game-high 27 points. A trey by Josh Currie got Havre close again, but, the Maroon rattled off seven straight to lead 20-11 after on. From the, Central just continued to inch away from the Ponies. They hit two more three's in the second to lead 36-22 at halftime.

Still, Havre didn't go away without a fight, with Crawford Terry burying a trey at the end of the third, and Currie and Tre Gary going back-to-back from downtown in the fourth as Havre did get as close as 12 points midway through. Central though, was able to salt the game away at the foul line, and behind three double-digit scorers and a 38-23 edge on the boards, advanced to tonight's semifinal against Glendive.

"Give it to Butte Central," Burgess said. "That's a really good team, so well coached. Really good defensively, and they killed us on the boards today. There's a reason they're 23-1, and they showed that today."

On the other end, the Ponies shot 40 percent from the floor, led by Currie's team-high 11. Terry, Gary, Caleb Spangler and Isaac Pedraza each scored seven for the Ponies, who also hit on six triples and outscored the Maroons in the second half.

"I'm proud of the boys," Burgess said. "This is a great experience, especially for those younger guys we had in there. We're learning a lot from this tournament.