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George Ferguson Column: These Ponies stood up to mighty Great Falls

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I know just how badly the Havre High boys basketball team wanted to beat Great Falls High Thursday night, and how badly they wanted the old Ole Goat Trophy to come home with them on the Blue Pony Express.

And I’m sure I know just how disappointed the Blue Ponies were when they had to make that bus trip home without the goat, because they came so close to making it happen.

That’s life sometimes and it’s definitely sports. You play games like basketball long enough, and there are going to be times when you get disappointed. There are going to be times when things don’t work out the way you dreamed they would.

But, that’s also why the Blue Ponies should be walking around the halls of Havre High this week with their heads held high. Because, they didn’t let the disappointment they felt last Thursday night get in the way of moving forward. And they certainly moved forward in a big, big way.

Just two days after the loss in Great Falls, Havre staged an epic comeback against its other Class AA rival, the CMR Rustlers. Down by as many as 17 points, the Ponies put together a fourth quarter for the ages, and when it was all said and done, the CMR Rustlers were stunned, while the big crowd at the HHS gymnasium was deafening.

The win over CMR was Havre’s fourth in a row over the Rustlers. And that’s something that these Blue Ponies should take a lot of pride in, not just because of how well they played to get that fourth straight win, but because of just how hard it is for any Class A team to step up and beat a mighty AA squad, especially ones that are basketball rich in tradition like the Bison and Rustlers.

Yes, both CMR and GFH have been basketball powers on and off for decades. And in most of those decades, they have spent many a winter night beating up on the Blue Ponies a couple of times a year.

Sure, Havre has had some memorable wins against both the Bison and Rustlers since the Ponies dropped to Class A in 1987, like the four-game sweep by the 1990-91 Ponies, or the very interesting win over the Rustlers by the 1993 Ponies in Havre — a game that will forever be remembered as the night the infamous Ryan Leaf dunked on our heads, but also gave his own personal salute to the Pony student section as he left the court after fouling out.

No, there’s no doubt that Havre has played some outstanding games against the Bison and Rustlers, and the HHS girls are no exception, as they've had their share of spectacular wins over both squads too.

But for the most part, it’s always seemed like Havre was inferior to both teams on the basketball court. Part of that is natural. Both CMR and GFH are twice as big as Havre in enrollment, and, like I said, both schools have gone through long stretches as the premier AA powerhouses in boys basketball.

However, that inferiority has also come from an underlying attitude. I don’t know how best to explain it, other than, on many nights, it’s just felt like the Bison and Rustlers just knew they were the better basketball team, and just knew they were going to win. Whether or not either one of them was really better than Havre in a particular game didn’t seem to matter much, they just always seemed to think that a Class A team couldn’t possibly beat them.

Now, don’t misunderstand me. I don’t think CMR and GFH’s players and coaches ever really projected that sentiment toward Havre on the court. Other than Leaf, I’ve never seen any evidence of a Great Falls team being disrespectful toward the Blue Ponies in any game. If anything, by games’ end, it’s been just the opposite. Time and time again, Havre has certainly done things to earn the Bison and Rustlers’ respect. Still, there has just always been that feeling, that, any time the Ponies played GFH or CMR, the Ponies were definitely the little brother about to take more lumps from big brother in the backyard.

However, whether I’m imagining that sentiment or not, the 2015-16 Blue Ponies did something that doesn’t happen very often, they schooled big brother. They chopped him down to size a little bit. Because this Blue Pony team just went 3-1 in the season series against the Bison and Rustlers, and the one loss was a dramatic one-point loss in the famed Swarthout Fieldhouse. Of course, I know the Ponies would give anything to get that one-point loss back, but, in the big picture, for at least one season, Havre wasn’t little brother to Great Falls.

And because of how much respect I know the Blue Ponies have for the programs at both CMR and GFH, I know they will look back and take a lot of pride in being a team that beat the Bison and Rustlers more times than they lost to them. And they should really take pride in what they’ve accomplished against Great Falls this season because there won’t be a season like it, ever again. From now on, Havre will only play each Great Falls school once a season, so there’s no doubt, the Ponies ended the rivalry the way we are used to seeing it on a really high note.

Like I said, because Havre is a Class A school, and because of how strong the programs at CMR and GFH are traditionally, the Ponies will probably always be the Bison and Rustlers’ little brother on the basketball court. And little brother just doesn’t win many fights. It’s not how the world works and it’s not how basketball works either.

But, these Blue Ponies were different. This winter, little brother fought back. This season, little brother stood up and won, not once, not twice, but three times. And that’s something these Blue Ponies should remember forever.

 

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