Blue Ponies look to extend winning streak against Miles City, Hardin

As the regular season nears its end, the Havre High girls basketball team is finding its stride amidst a five-game winning streak. This weekend on the road, the Blue Ponies will look to keep it up when they play Miles City and Hardin.

The Ponies start their road trip with a conference game at Miles City tonight. The Cowgirls enter the game with a 4-1 record in the Northeast A and an overall record of 9-4. With the Cowgirls right behind them in the conference standings, HHS head coach Dustin Kraske knows the Cowgirls will play tough tonight.

"Miles City is a very good team and I would expect it to be a dog fight down there," Kraske said. "I think it's going to take everything we have to play together. It's going to be a lot of fun."

At HHS Gymnasium last month, the Ponies won, 58-49, against the Cowgirls. If the Ponies want to make it a sweep in this regular season, they will need to once again contain Miles City's best players. Lainey Smith will look to get going as she leads Miles City with 10.5 points a game on 33.3 percent shooting from the field. Riley Smith will also look to have a good game after leading the Cowgirls with 17 points in their last game against Havre.

After they play Miles City, the Ponies will stay on the road with a game against Hardin Saturday. The Bulldogs will be the Ponies' toughest opponent in the last few weeks, so the Ponies will be playing in another battle right before the postseason.

"Hardin's always a good game. They battle you and fight you," Kraske said. "Both games this weekend will be very similar to what a tournament would be like so that's the pleasing part for me and our kids."

Hardin enters the game with a record of 9-3 this season. Last month at HHS Gymnasium, Hardin got the better of Havre with a 49-48 victory. Aiyanna Big Man will look to have another big game against Havre as she scored 19 points in the victory. Katerena Morrison will be looking to get going as she averages 10.0 points on 46.8 percent shooting.

The Ponies have found their stride lately with five straight wins to improve to 10-4 on the year and 7-0 in the Northeast A. If Havre wants to keep their winning streak alive, the best players on the team will need to continue to dominate this weekend. Amaya Jarvis has been the leading scorer for Havre this season averaging 14.7 points a contest. Ariana Gary has also been reliable with 9.9 points a game this season.

The Ponies only have four more games before beginning the postseason with the Eastern A Divisionals later this month. As they head on a tough road trip this weekend, Kraske just wants to see the Ponies come out to play in tough environments.

"Get off the bus and be able to play. That's what the tournaments are like, and so we would expect our kids to be mentally prepared and ready to do that," Kraske said. "We'll start fixing the details of the stuff that we run and we have to just tighten up a couple of things."

The HHS girls basketball team will tip off at Miles City tonight at 7:30 p.m. The Ponies will then play at Hardin Saturday at 4 p.m.