HHS boys try to end losing skid against Central A Conference foes Lewistown and Butte Central
Chris Peterson Havre Daily News cpeterson@havredailynews.com
Two weeks can be a long time to ponder a defeat. And in the case of the Havre High boys basketball team, the holiday break was way too much time to think about the 88-44 blowout the Ponies suffered at the hands of the Great Falls High Bison in their last game. However, the Ponies have had plenty of time to regroup and they will need to be firing on all cylinders as they prepare for two crucial conference games at home against Lewistown tonight, and at Butte Central on Saturday. “I think these games are very important for us right now,” HHS head coach John Barnhorst said. “First of all, we have got to take care of business at home in conference play. And secondly we need get a win to get some confidence back because we have had to think about the loss to Great Falls High for almost two weeks now and this will be the first chance we get to redeem ourselves.” When the Ponies play host to the Eagles tonight at the HHS gymnasium, the game will pit two teams that have combined to lose their last five games. Havre (2-3 overall, 1-1 conference) has lost its last two games and three of its last four games overall. The Eagles (1-4 overall, 0-1 conference) enter tonight’s contest losers of four of their first five games, and are currently on a three-game losing skid. Havre has dominated the recent series with the Eagles, including an easy sweep of the home and home between the two teams last season. But with Havre graduating all five starters from a year ago, the Ponies and Eagles appear to once again be on a level playing field. The match up will feature a battle between two of the Central A’s top scorers as Chris Brandt of Havre, second in the conference in scoring coming into the game with 16.4 points per game will square off against Evan Stokken of Lewistown, who is third in the conference in scoring with 14.8 points per game. Stokken will also count on fellow backcourt mate Craig Nelson, who averages 11. 6 points per game as well as Matt Burns, who is the force inside for Lewistown with 9.6 points per game and a team-leading six rebounds per game. “They have two pretty good scorers,” Barnhorst said. “They are both pretty talented kids, so we are really going to focus on trying to slow them down. “We are also going to have to play with a lot of patience of offense and cut down on our turnovers.” he added. “If we can do that and contain their scorers, I think we will have a good chance.” On Saturday night, the Ponies will face off against another premier scorer in Butte Central senior guard Matt Ritter. Ritter is quite possibly the best perimeter player in the Central A, as he leads the league in scoring with 20.4 points per game. Not only does Ritter score a majority of the points for the Maroons, but he also leads the team in rebounds, assists and steals. “Our game plan is fairly similar for both teams,” Barnhorst said. “We are really going to focus on trying to stop Ritter. They have a couple other kids who can score, but he is a very big part of their offense and our number one goal on defense is to try and contain him.” One advantage that Havre should have against both Butte Central and Lewistown will be down low in the paint. Both teams lack size and bulk down low, so the Ponies will look to pound the ball inside to senior forwards Michael Sharp and Andy Pester. “We feel like we are going to have a bit of an advantage inside against both Lewistown and Butte Central,” Barnhorst said. “So we are going to pound the ball inside to our big guys and try to open things up more for our outside shooters. We have been relying to much on the jump shot early on and we have got to start establishing some kind of inside presence to get some higher percentage shots and get more open shots for our guards on the outside.” Havre and Lewistown will get under way tonight at 7 at the HHS gymnasium and on Saturday Havre will travel to Butte Central with that game getting under way at 5 p.m. “I think the time off has given us a chance to work on some of the things that we needed to improve upon like offensive execution and handling pressure,” Barnhorst said. “But now we are ready to get back out on the court and hopefully we can get a win and get some confidence back as we enter the next part of our schedule.”
