Havre basketball set for showdown with Lewistown

The Havre High boys and girls basketball teams are back in action this Saturday as they will both play Lewistown. The games are designated home games for the Blue Ponies, but they will actually be played at the Metra in Billings. The Ponies will compete at the Eastern A Divisionals on this same floor later this season, so these games provide an early opportunity to see how they play in that environment.

The night will get started with the HHS boys basketball team playing the Golden Eagles. Lewistown remains undefeated this season with a record of 10-0 and 4-0 in the Northeast A. As the Ponies look to improve over the course of the season, HHS head coach Walynn Burgess believes this challenge will help the Ponies continue to grow.

"It's going to be a good battle for us," Burgess said. "It will be a lot of learning and a lot of growing and we're still fighting towards that end date."

The Ponies and Eagles have already played each other as they competed in Lewistown earlier this month. The Ponies played well in the first half and even took a lead into halftime against the undefeated Eagles. However, the Eagles got rolling in the second half to win 83-51.

The Eagles have many players that can rack up the points. Royce Robinson leads the team averaging 23.7 points and 7.7 rebounds a game this season. Fischer Brown is also dangerous as he averages 21.7 points a game on 50.3 percent shooting. If the Ponies want to slow down the Eagles, they would need to play good defense in the paint.

"If we let them get downhill in the paint, then we're in trouble," Burgess said. "We understand they're going to keep getting rebounds. They've crashed the boards really well so we know we're going to have to get bodies on people to get them out there."

The Ponies enter the game with a record of 9-4 and they are 4-2 in Northeast A competition. This season, the Ponies have been led by Xavier Butler who averages 18.7 points and 7.7 rebounds a game. Since their loss to Lewistown, Havre has won three straight games showing improvement in that time.

"We've been working together on the court and I feel like we keep getting better every day," Burgess said. "(Lewistown) is getting a lot better too so we know we're in for a big time battle."

After the boys wrap up, the HHS girls basketball team will tip off against the Golden Eagles. Lewistown has a record of 3-7 and is 2-2 in the Northeast A. The last time Havre and Lewistown played, the Ponies only won 60-52, so HHS head coach Dustin Kraske expects another fight for the Ponies this weekend.

"When we were down in Fergus two weeks ago, I thought they played incredibly hard, played very well together and it was a really nice battle," Kraske said. "I would expect that to be the same when we go to Billings on Saturday."

In that loss to Havre, Kiya Floran led the Eagles with 13 points and Lexy Burnham scored 12 in the losing effort. While the Eagles did not win the game, Kraske saw plenty from them that could give them trouble in Saturday's matchup.

"Against us, they shot the ball incredibly well so we're going to have to do a better job of having our hands active defensively to try to eliminate some open looks," Kraske said.

The Ponies enter this game with a record of 9-4 and they are undefeated in the Northeast A with a 6-0 record. Amaya Jarvis has been the leader on offense for the Ponies with 15.2 points a game this winter. Ariana Gary will also look to make an impact as she averages 10.0 points a game.

The Ponies are the designated home teams but will be playing at a neutral site in the Metra. While it is unfortunate the Ponies do not get one more game inside the corral this season, they look forward to the opportunity to play in such a grand venue before the postseason.

"That's why we're there, to get the experience of playing in a humongous facility," Kraske said. "That will be a challenge, not just from Lewistown, but from a facility standpoint."

The HHS boys basketball game against Lewistown will tip off at the Metra in Billings Saturday at 6 p.m. The HHS girls basketball team will then play Lewistown later at about 7:30 p.m.