Super Divisional: Pony boys a top seed at new Eastern A

Some teams are defined by what they do during tournament time and one team that will be defined by what it does in the postseason is the Havre High boys basketball team.

That’s because after falling just short of both the Central A divisional and the Class A state titles a season ago, these Blue Ponies have some unfinished business, which they will be looking to complete, starting today against Laurel at 5 in the Rimrock Auto Arena at the Metra in Billings.

Yet, as the Ponies, and every other team in attendance knows, this divisional isn’t an ordinary divisional. It’s the first edition of the so-called, Super Divisional, which combines the Central A and the Eastern A in one, nine-team tournament that will span several days at one the best venues in the state of Montana.

“I am not looking forward to playing in Billings for five days,” HHS head coach Curt Leeds said. “That’s going to be a long five days. But other than that, and in terms of the basketball, I think it’s going to be really exciting.”

Leeds is right about one thing, what the basketball spectators will see at the Metra over the next five days should be stellar and with four teams that played at state a season ago, including two semifinalists (Havre and Laurel) as well as the top four individual scorers in the state all set to be in attendance, it should be, if nothing else, exciting.

And while there are plenty of intriguing first-round matchups, the opening-round game between Havre and Laurel should be as good as any that will be seen today.

“I think they are going to be really similar to a team like Malta,” Leeds said of Laurel. “They aren’t really big, they are more of a guard-oriented team. They run a dribble-drive offense and they like to attack the basket and try to open up things at the 3-point line.”

The Locomotives may be just 9-9 on the season, but they are battled tested. They played in arguably the most difficult conference in Class A basketball and were the only team in Class A to knock off Miles City. Laurel also owns a win over Class AA rival Billings West and lost four combined games to Billings Central and Hardin, the second and third seeds from the East, by a total of 10 points.

However, despite Laurel’s impressive resume of winning big games over the past two seasons, Leeds said he believes the Locomotives are a favorable matchup for his team, especially because of their lack of an inside presence.

“I think us getting the top seed (in the Central A) really wound up being a good thing for us,” Leeds said. “Laurel has a 6-6 kid, but he is more of a guard-oriented player and Billings Central, who is also on our side of the bracket, is really similar. So we were able to avoid all the teams that have the size inside.”

Playing a team with size inside could be the Ponies' kryptonite, but it also may not matter because if Dane Warp, Nate Rismon and Jerod Boles are hitting on all cylinders for HHS, the who and the when might just be an afterthought.

“We are going to rely on those guys a lot this week,” Leeds said. “We have other kids that have played at the state tournament, but those three have been there the past two years and those are the guys that we are going to turn to when we need to calm things down and when things get crazy.”

One thing is for sure, when it comes to individuals, no one in Class A makes more of an impact on a nightly basis than Warp, who not only leads the state in scoring with 25.72 points per game, but is also sixth in the Class A in rebounds with 7.56 per night.

Warp, who has led Class A in scoring for the third straight year, does so in part, because he can beat a defense in so many ways. He is a talented 3-point shooter, despite knocking down just 29 percents of his attempts this season and he does a better job of attacking the basket than anyone in the state.

The 6-4 senior is not only shooting 54 percent on 2-pointers this season, he trails only one other player in terms of made field goals inside the arc. He also leads all of Class A in both free throws attempted and made, while shooting 46 percent from the field as a whole. Those stats show the different ways that he can score and the efficiency with which he does so on a nightly basis.

When Warp isn’t scoring, he is pretty good at finding his teammates and the two that he looks for the most are Rismon and Boles, who average 8.11 and 7.83 points per game respectively. Both players shoot better than 31 percent from beyond the arc and are among the team leaders in free throws attempted, assists and steals per game.

When Havre looks across the aisle, HHS will see a Laurel team that has no one as individually talented as Warp, but one with enough talent, moxy and experience to pull the upset. Which is why Leeds believes, that at the end of the day, Havre’s chances in the Eastern A and beyond, will come down to defense.

“I think the biggest thing for us is to keep defending the way we have been the past few weeks,” Leeds said. “We need the offense to play well obviously, but if we play good defense and rebound, I think we will have a good chance of bringing home a trophy.”

If Havre wins today, it will take on either Billings Central or Livingston Friday at 3:30 p.m. in the semifinals. Billings Central (10-8) also opens its tournament today against the Rangers (6-12) at 3. The other matchups from Wednesday feature Browning (8-10) vs Sidney (8-11) in the play-in game at 12, as well as Belgrade (11-7) and Hardin (11-7). Miles City (15-3) will play either Browning or Sidney Thursday at 1:30 p.m. The consolation game will be held Saturday at 3 p.m., with the championship to follow at 6:30 p.m.

“I think it’s going to be pretty wide open,” Leeds said. “There are going to be some very good teams but I think if you look at both leagues, pretty much everybody was able to beat everybody. So I think we are going to see some tough, close games, but it’s something we are looking forward to.”

Havre and Laurel will tip-off today at 5 for the Ponies’ first-round game. The top four teams from Billings move on to next week's Class A state tourney in Missoula.