Blue Ponies look to pick up their first win of the season

After an 0-2 start to the season, the Havre High girls basketball team will be looking to get in the win column this weekend when it heads on a road trip. The Blue Ponies will face Glendive tonight and then Sidney tomorrow night to start Northeast A competition. As they rack up the miles this weekend, HHS head coach Dustin Kraske looks forward to seeing how his players will handle it.

"It'll be fun to get on the road with a couple of conference games," Kraske said. "They're big games for us so it's going to be fun watching our kids play."

The Ponies start the weekend tonight with a game at Glendive. The Red Devils are 0-2 to start the season with losses to Dickinson and Laurel. The leading scorer for the Devils this season is Sari Murphy, who is averaging 8.0 points on 43.7 percent shooting. While she has not gotten any time on the court yet this season, Codi Nagle could be a problem for the Ponies this weekend. Regardless of who suits up for the Devils tonight, Kraske expects them to play tough.

"They play pretty hard defensively," Kraske said. "They got a new coach so some of their stuff is probably going to be different from what they've done in years past. But watching them on tape, I like how they play hard."

The Ponies will continue their road trip with a game at Sidney Saturday afternoon. The Eagles are also off to an 0-2 start this season. Their leading scorer is Savanna Anderson, who averages 10.0 points on 60 percent shooting. Along with her, the Eagles have several veteran players who bring their experience into this weekend's matchup.

"They got some kids that are coming back from last year's team," Kraske said. "They play a little man and a little zone. They try to mix it up a little bit so that'll be a good challenge for our kids."

Like both their opponents, the Ponies are off to an 0-2 start this season. The Ponies have been competitive, but dropped a 54-51 loss to Laurel and a 62-56 loss to Billings Central so far this winter.

A bright spot so far this season for the Ponies has been Amaya Jarvis, who is averaging 21.5 points through two games this season. Ariana Gary has also been off to a solid start averaging 9.5 points a contest. But if the Ponies want to get in the win column this weekend, there are two areas they will need to improve in from their first two games.

"Defense and rebounding are two big things we're going to focus on. Our ability to keep kids in front of us and then understand rotations," Kraske said. "Those have been our focuses for the week so I would expect our kids to do those tasks better."

Not only will the Ponies be looking to pick up their first wins of the season this weekend, but they will also be looking to start conference play on the right foot. If the Ponies want to set themselves up for another deep postseason run at the end of winter, some wins this weekend could go a long way to securing the top seed in the Northeast A.

"The importance is you want to set yourself up for the divisional tournament and that's the conversation we have had with our kids," Kraske said. "Playing better every week is what our main concern is so we'll take that and move forward."

The HHS girls basketball team will tip off the road trip tonight at 6 p.m. with its game against Glendive. The Ponies will then play again on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. with their game at Sidney.