Pony boys take on road battles

The Havre High boys basketball team has enjoyed a lot of home cooking lately. But, if the Blue Ponies want to wrap up the top spot in the Central A, they will need to win on the road this weekend to do it.

The Ponies, who have won eight of their last nine games, have played seven of eight games at home. Two of those games were wins over Livingston and Belgrade Dec. 18 and 19, and both of those victories were key to HHS building a lead in the Central A.

Yet, starting tonight in Livingston, HHS will play back-to-back road games against the Rangers and Panthers, with the aim of furthering their strong hold on the conference standings. Havre and Livingston will meet tonight at 6. Then, the Ponies will do battle with Belgrade Saturday at 2 p.m.

“It’s important to get at least one win so we can solidify ourselves in one of the top three spots,” HHS head coach Curt Leeds said. “But two wins would give us the outright win in the conference and give us a little wiggle room at the end. If we were to beat Belgrade and Livingston that would give Belgrade two losses and even if we lost our last two games we would have the tiebreaker because we beat them twice”

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that this weekend will be an important one in the Central A basketball race. All five teams are looking to finish in the top three of the final standings to avoid a play-in game at the end of the season, but more particularly, Havre, Belgrade and Livingston all have hope for claiming the top spot and the top seed from the Central going into the Eastern A Divisional.

In the first meeting between the two teams, Havre knocked off Livingston 62-48 inside the HHS gymnasium. And over the past two seasons, the Ponies have owned the Rangers, posting a 4-0 record, with three of the four wins coming by double digits.

Despite having a 3-7 overall mark, the Rangers are 2-2 in the conference and with an upset over the Ponies tonight, Livingston can get itself right in the thick of the race for first. While the game has plenty of implications in the league, another reason it should prove to be exciting is that it pits the top scorers in Class A basketball against each other in a head-to-head matchup.

The Rangers will be led by Ladan Ricketts, who leads all of Class A with a scoring average of 24.5 points per game, while Havre boasts Dane Warp, who has led Class A in points per game each of the last two seasons and ranks second currently with 24.2.

Ricketts has done most of his damage from beyond the 3-point line as he leads the Central A with 3.6 3-point field goals per game. For the season, he is shooting an astounding 56 percent from deep and is shooting 51 percent from the field. However, if the Rangers are going to pull the upset, he will need more than the 10 points he mustered against Havre earlier in the season.

“I think in the first game we did a good job of not giving him open looks,” Leeds said. “And we are going to approach it the same way. We are going to give him extra attention and really focus on stopping him.”

While Warp actually accounts for a slightly higher percentage of his team's points, the big advantage he and the Ponies have on Livingston is their defense. Through 10 games, HHS is allowing just 47.8 points per game to opponents, which leads the Central A. Livingston, on the other hand, is giving up just under 60 points a game, which is second worst ahead of only Browning.

A stifling defense has helped HHS make up for an offense that struggled at times this season. Havre does have other reliable scorers, including both Jerod Boles and Nate Rismon, who average more than seven points per game, but when their shots aren't falling, the Ponies know they can rely on their defense to keep them in games.

“I think we have more guys around Dane than they have,” Leeds said of Livingston. “So if it comes down to the guys around them making some shots I think that is an advantage for us.”

After taking on Livingston Friday, the Ponies will turn their attention to Belgrade on Saturday and after a dramatic win over the Panthers back in December, HHS will be looking to finish off the season sweep.

But, to emerge victorious, Havre will need to deal with another high-powered scorer in Dawson Fowler, who is third in the Central A in scoring and eighth in the state with an average of 16.7 points per game.

Ricketts may have struggled against the Ponies earlier in the year, but Fowler didn't as he exploded for 25 points and six treys in Belgrade's 61-58 overtime loss. He will need another outstanding night if the Panthers (5-5, 3-1) are going to even up the season series and tie Havre in the Central A standings.

“We are going to try to defend him the same way we are going to do defend Ricketts,” Leeds said. “We want to try and limit his opportunities.”

HHS should have the advantage overall with Warp and the team's defense, but in addition to Fowler, Belgrade boasts Morgan Eitel, who averages 12.4 points per game, fourth in the Central A, while also tying for the league lead in rebounds with 8.2 per game along with Warp.

Coming in, Belgrade is the second best rebounding team in the conference overall, but their average of 26.9 per game is slightly better than Havre's 25.1. Yet, the big difference is on the defensive boards, where Belgrade dominates, grabbing 20 boards a game, which is second only to Browning and will come in handy since HHS is the second best offensive rebounding team in the league with more than eight per game.

Regardless of how they do it, if the Ponies knock off Belgrade, they will be the top seed from the Central heading into the Eastern A divisional, no matter what happens in games later this season against Browning and Lewistown.

“I think that our boys are coming in with a lot of confidence,” Leeds said. “We have been playing great defense and our offense has been playing good in spurts. This would be a great time for it all to come together and the perfect weekend for it all to come together. And if we can get two wins our confidence should be at an all-time high going forward for the rest of the season.”

Havre and Livingston will tip-off tonight at 6. Belgrade and Havre will square off Saturday at 2 p.m.