Blue Pony boys basketball falls to Miles City, survives Hardin

Over the weekend, the Havre High boys basketball team demonstrated its growing pains as a team in a doubleheader at Havre High Gymnasium. On Friday, the Blue Ponies suffered a 56-49 loss to Miles City in a conference game. But Saturday, the Ponies responded and came back to defeat Hardin 66-62.

In their game Friday against Miles City, the Ponies started the game hot racing out to an 8-0 lead. Xavier Butler got started early with a pair of baskets in this stretch. But the Cowboys responded to cut the deficit to 10-8 to end the quarter.

Ed Brooks and Logan Muri scored a pair of baskets to start the second quarter to give Miles City a 12-10 lead. After Crawford Terry scored to tie the game, Brooks made a pair of baskets to give Miles City a 16-12 lead.

Over the next few minutes, the Ponies and Cowboys exchanged scores until Miles City had a 22-18 lead with about two and half minutes left in the half. In the remaining moments of the half, Ryder Lee knocked down a free throw and Brooks scored to give Miles City a 25-18 lead at halftime. After limiting Miles City early in the game, HHS head coach Walynn Burgess believes the Ponies relaxed too much on defense in the second quarter.

"We kind of lost that energy there," Burgess said. "We just backed off and let them pick and choose where they wanted to go and score and when you let good teams like that pick and choose, they're going to make you pay for it."

The Cowboys started the second half with a 7-0 run to stretch the lead to 32-18. Brooks continued to roll with four points during this stretch. Over the rest of the third quarter, the Ponies struggled to cut into the deficit as Miles City built itself a 45-29 lead heading to the fourth.

"They play really hard, I'll give that to them," Burgess said about Miles City's defense. "They do the little things that make you into a good team and they did a lot of those little things that forced us out of stuff and made us uncomfortable."

With little time remaining, the Ponies opened the fourth on a 16-5 run. Both Butler and Tre Gary made big impacts during this run with five points each. A 3-pointer from Gary with just under four minutes left cut the deficit to 50-45.

"We had a whole lot of energy all the way around," Burgess said about the run. "When we want to play hard, we want to play with energy and we want to do those little things, we look really good."

But the Ponies did not have enough time to make it all the way back. Over the rest of the game, the Cowboys knocked down enough shots to pull it out. Meanwhile, the Ponies only scored two points over the final three and a half minutes.

Butler led the Ponies with 18 points while Gary scored 12 points. It was a balanced attack for Miles City with Brooks scoring 18 points and Lee scoring 17. Muri scored 11 points while Dylan Gundlach contributed 12 points in the winning effort.

The Ponies did not have much time to wallow on the loss as they played again Saturday night against Hardin. Both teams came out strong in the first quarter as they fought to a 14-14 tie. Thanks to a layup from Shane Patacsil and some free throws from Gary, the Ponies took an 18-14 lead into the second quarter.

Butler started the second with a layup and one free throw to push the lead to 21-14. But the Bulldogs took control with a 15-6 run. Kingston Hugs started the run with a three and a few minutes later, made another three to tie the game at 27-27. Houston Little Light and Hugs made a pair of baskets to give Hardin a 31-27 lead. The Ponies and Bulldogs went on to exchange baskets over the final minute of the half to give Hardin a 33-29 lead at halftime.

After losing the lead in the second quarter, the Ponies started the third with a three from Patacsil and a free throw from Butler to tie the game. Hugs responded for the Bulldogs with a basket and a three to retake the lead. Chance Three Irons then scored to give Hardin a 40-33 lead halfway through the third.

It looked like the Ponies would suffer their second straight loss as the Bulldogs stretched their lead to 50-40 late in the third. But thanks to free throws from Gary and Terry, the Ponies cut the deficit to 50-44 heading to the fourth. The Ponies then started the fourth with free throws from Gary to cut the score to 50-46.

Justin Strait knocked a three for Hardin to increase the lead to 53-46, but that would be the last three of the game for the Bulldogs. After allowing nine 3-pointers in the first three quarters, the Ponies limited Hardin to only one in the fourth. After receiving so many haymakers early on, Burgess believes his players kept with their defense and hunkered down.

"It was just the belief in our system," Burgess said. "It was the belief in our defense and that we're going to be able to stop somebody, that we can stay in front of somebody and make it really hard for them to hit shots."

With a chance to get back in the game, Butler got hot and took control for the Ponies. He started the run with a three to cut the deficit to 53-49. After a Hardin free throw, Butler responded with a bucket to keep pace. After Hardin scored, Butler nailed back-to-back threes to give Havre a 57-56 lead halfway through the fourth.

"I just had the hot hand going down to the end and I just delivered," Butler said.

Patacscil got in on the action with a bucket to increase the lead to 59-56. Hardin responded with some free throws from Three Irons and a bucket from Lamont Hogan to take a 60-59 lead.

But Butler continued to be clutch. He first knocked down a three to give Havre a 62-60 lead. After a defensive stop, Butler made a layup to extend the lead to 64-60 with just under two minutes left.

"He had a will that didn't want to lose and he put us on his back and carried us to victory," Burgess said about Butler. "He's put in his work and he's put in his time to go and do something like that."

Hardin scored trying to keep pace, but Patacsil scored again to keep it a four-point game. The Ponies then played defense in the closing moments to close out the win. Butler finished the game with 34 points, including four made 3-pointers. Hugs led Hardin with 30 points and seven 3-pointers, but he was held scoreless in the fourth.

At the end of this tough doubleheader, the Ponies are 5-2 this season and 2-1 in Northeast A competition. The Ponies had many stretches this weekend where they looked good, including that fourth quarter against Hardin. But over the next few months, the Ponies will look to extend those stretches across entire games in order to be the team they want to be.

"When we have energy, we look really good. If we're flying around, we're causing turnovers, we're doing those types of things, we look really good," Burgess said. "There's times we just come out flat and part of that is being young and that's part of not having the experience of being in those types of games so we have to be locked in for 32 minutes."

The HHS boys basketball team will next play Fairfield on the road this Friday at 5 p.m.

Miles City 56, Havre 49

MC - 8 17 20 13 - 56

HAV - 10 8 11 20 - 49

MC - Ed Brooks 18, Ryder Lee 17, Logan Muri 11, Dylan Gundlach 10.

HAV - Xavier Butler 18, Tre Gary 12, Crawford Terry 8, Shane Patacsil 7, Carter Spangler 2, Jackson Headress 2, Jevin Jenkins 2.

Havre 66, Hardin 62

HAR - 14 19 17 12 - 62

HAV - 18 11 15 22 - 66

HAR - Kingston Hugs 30, Elias Stops 11, Lamont Hogan 8, Antonio Espinoza 4, Chance Three Irons 4, Justin Strait 3, Houston Little Light 2.

HAV - Xavier Butler 34, Tre Gary 11, Shane Patacsil 9, Crawford Terry 6, Jevin Jenkins 3, Carter Spangler 2, Kash Keller 1.