Blue Ponies take care of business against Malta

In their final games of 2022, the Havre High boys and girls basketball teams hosted the Malta basketball teams Tuesday night at Havre High Gymnasium. All around, the Blue Ponies looked good heading into their holiday break as the HHS boys team won 63-54 and the HHS girls team won 62-45.

The night started with the HHS boys team playing Malta. After an early 4-4 tie, Tre Gary nailed a 3-pointer to give the Ponies the lead. Xavier Butler then kept it rolling with a layup. After Malta responded with a score, Jevin Jenkins and Butler scored back-to-back layups. Jenkins then made a layup and one free throw to give Havre a 15-6 lead.

Over the rest of the first quarter and throughout the second quarter, the Ponies began to pull away on the scoreboard. With a 25-19 lead, the Ponies closed the first half on a 17-8 run. Matt Huse led the Ponies with six points during this run with a pair of threes. HHS head coach Walynn Burgess believes the Ponies' active hands during this stretch helped them take a 42-27 lead into halftime.

"They're quick and fast when they want to be and are able to force a lot of turnovers when we can get out and run in the lanes and I thought we did a really good job of that in the second quarter," Burgess said. "By using our speed and flying around, I think we caused some havoc on defense."

Early in the third quarter, it looked like the Ponies would run away with it as they stretched the lead to 46-30. But the Mustangs ended the quarter on a 9-0 run to cut Havre's lead to 46-39 heading to the fourth.

"Those Mustangs always come in here and they just play hard," Burgess said. "They just didn't want to go away and they came out with the right energy and the right mentality and they just stuck around."

The Ponies found their footing again in the fourth quarter as they pushed their lead to 59-48 with about two minutes left in the game. But the Mustangs responded with a 6-0 run to cut Havre's lead to 59-54 with about a minute left. Thankfully for the Ponies, Jenkins and Shane Patacsil made layups to put the game away.

"I think it's just a mentality thing," Jenkins said about holding off the Mustangs in the second half. "That's a tough team that's willing to battle, and I think we just had the grit and mentality to hold them off so I'm very happy with how we finished it out."

Butler and Jenkins each scored 12 points to lead the Ponies. Gary and Patacsil also played well as they both scored 11 points in the contest. The HHS boys basketball team is now 4-1 on the season and have now won three straight games. As they head into their holiday break, the Ponies will be looking to build on their strengths to play consistently throughout a game.

"We just got to focus on staying high energy throughout the whole game. We go in spurts and then we're riding waves," Jenkins said. "I think if we just say high energy, keep the bench rolling, keep the starts rolling, I feel like we'll just keep rolling through and keep winning games."

After the boys finished up their game, the HHS girls basketball team got started against Malta. The Ponies started hot with a layup from Tierra Parker and a three from Lizzi Haney to take a 5-0 lead. After Malta got on the scoreboard, Haney knocked down another three to make it 8-4.

Over the next few minutes, the Ponies continued to knock down their shots to extend their lead to 20-10. The M-Ettes tried to get back in it as they cut their deficit to 22-14 to end the first quarter. But the Ponies could not be slowed as they pulled away in the second quarter to take a 39-22 lead into halftime.

"We shared the ball very well. We were very aggressive and our kids played very hard," HHS head coach Dustin Kraske said about the offense. "It was fun to watch."

In the second half, the Ponies cruised to victory. The closest the M-Ettes could make it was 17 points as the Ponies' defense kept the game out of reach. The M-Ettes came into the game undefeated, so the Ponies knew they had to raise the pressure on defense in order to win.

"We knew that (Malta) was going to come out ready to play so we knew we had to be strong on defense," Amaya Jarvis said.

Jarvis finished the game with 17 points while Parker scored nine points. After an 0-2 start to the season, the Ponies are now 3-2 as they head into their holiday break. With the first month of the season in the books, Kraske believes the defending state champions are on the right track.

"We're happy with where we're at so far. I thought our kids have grown a lot in this first month of the season," Kraske said. "That was a good Malta team that we were able to play very well against, so I'm proud of our kids and I think they're off and running."

Both HHS basketball teams will return from their holiday break on Jan. 6 as they both host Miles City at HHS Gymnasium.

Havre Boys 63, Malta 54

MAL - 11 16 12 15 - 54

HAV - 18 24 4 17 - 63

MAL - B. Brenden 15, J. Eggebrecat 13, E. Hanson 11, T. Wilke 6.

HAV - Xavier Butler 12, Jevin Jenkins 12, Tre Gary 11, Shane Patacsil 11, Reid Kato 6, Matt Huse 6, Jackson Headdress 5.

Havre girls 62, Malta 45

MAL - 14 8 10 13 - 45

HAV - 22 17 17 6 - 62

MAL - A. Kunze 17, A. Anderson 10, M. Williamson 7, D. Tuss 6, N. Jacobson 4, B. French 1.

HAV - Amaya Jarvis 17, Tierra Parker 9, Lizzi Haney 8, Kyanna Jarvis 8, Ariana Gary 7, Sierra Parker 7, Molly Huse 4, Elle Verploegen 2.