Billings Central to provide early-season test for Havre basketball squads

The Havre High boys and girls basketball teams will be back on the court this Saturday after starting their seasons with games against Laurel last weekend. The Blue Pony squads will head into the weekend under different circumstances as the girls team will look to rebound from a loss to open the year while the boys team will try to start the year 2-0.

The HHS girls basketball team will hold its home opener this Saturday at Havre High Gymnasium when it plays Billings Central. It will be a rematch of the last two state championship games that the Ponies both won. But the Rams have shown they are capable of defeating the Ponies as they defeated them in the regular season and the Eastern A Divisional title game last season.

"I would anticipate that they'll be pretty salty like they always are," HHS head coach Dustin Kraske said about the upcoming game. "They got some kids coming back off last year's team which was incredibly talented and I would imagine they'll come in here and play hard looking to get a win."

The Ponies enter the game with an 0-1 record after losing, 54-51, to Laurel on the road last weekend. The Ponies played a tough game against the Locomotives, but Kraske knows there are some areas where the Ponies need to improve if they want to defeat the Rams this weekend.

"We're going to spend quite a bit of time the next few days working on our rebounding and our ability to take care of the basketball," Kraske said. "Defensively, we got to get a little more discipline in the half court. We gave up 54 points to Laurel and that's probably about 10 too many so we got to work to take care of that."

If the Ponies want to defeat a tough Billings Central squad and avoid an 0-2 start to the season, they will need their best players to step up. All-State player Avery Carlson will look to make an impact after scoring seven points against Laurel. Players such as Amaya Jarvis and Ariana Gary will look to build off their season opener as Jarvis scored 16 points and Gary scored 11 points against Laurel.

The HHS boys basketball team will meanwhile be on the road this Saturday in its game against Billings Central. With it being their first game on the road this winter, HHS head coach Walynn Burgess expects a tough fight for the Ponies.

"They just always have a lot of good talent year in and year out so we know we're going in for a battle," Burgess said. "We just know we have to go down there with the right mindset and be ready for a battle from the start because we know they're going to be coming for us."

Last season, the Ponies and Rams split their meetings. In the regular season, the Rams got the better of the Ponies with a 52-38 win in HHS Gymnasium. But in the Eastern A Divisionals, Havre defeated Billings Central, 54-51, to clinch a spot in the state tournament and end the Rams' season.

The Ponies will be looking to build off their 72-44 win over Laurel to start the season. While there are things they can improve on from that game, there is a lot that Burgess will want to carry over into this game against the Rams.

"(We need to carry on) our mentality. Knowing that every play matters, that we can't take plays off and hopefully learn from our mistakes that we did make," Burgess said. "We know we have a long way to go until the end of the year but we also know that it's a good start for us."

Many Ponies will be looking to build off their strong starts to the season. Xavier Butler had an impressive start to the year as he scored 27 points against Laurel last weekend. Shane Patacsil also chipped in nine points and Carter Spangler and Tre Gary each scored seven points against the Locomotives.

Both the Billings Central boys and girls basketball teams are talented squads. As both Pony squads set the foundation for what they want to accomplish this season, these games against the Rams should be good tests for where they are at.

The HHS girl's basketball team will tip off against Billings Central at HHS Gymnasium this Saturday at 4 p.m. The HHS boys basketball team will tip off on the road against Billings Central this Saturday at 4 p.m.