Blue Ponies are Eastern A champs

For the last three years, the Havre High boys basketball team came up short at the Central A Divisional tournament. But, in the first combined Eastern A Divisional, the Blue Ponies had no such shortcomings.

Saturday night at the Billings Metra, the Blue Ponies overcame an early deficit to beat the Hardin Bulldogs, 70-64 in the Eastern A championship game. The win gives HHS a top seed at next week's Class A state tourney in Missoula, and was Havre's first divisional title in quite some time.

The Ponies once again rode the wave of scoring machine Dane Warp, who poured in 34 points, while fellow seniors Nate Rismon and Jerod Boles chipped in with another 22. The Ponies also overcame an 18-11 start by Hardin to win the title.

Havre will now head to Missoula, where it will face the Hamilton Broncs in the first round on Thursday at Dahlberg Arena. Hardin, Billings Central and Laurel also advanced, as did Western A champ Dillon, Polson and Butte Central.

Meanwhile, the Havre girls weren't playing a divisional championship game for the first time in five years, but, thanks to another overtime thriller, the Ponies are headed back to state.

On Saturday morning, the Ponies punched their ticket to the state tournament in Belgrade in two weeks with a 66-57 OT win over Miles City. It was HHS's second overtime win in less than 24 hours, and it also pushed the Ponies into Saturday night's consolation game where they beat rival Lewistown 55-48. In that game, Dani Wagner scored 21 points and Naomi Terry added 12.

For complete Eastern A Blue Pony coverage, see Monday's HDN.