News you can use

Pony girls end a tough season

A disappointing season came to an end on Friday afternoon for the Havre High girls basketball team. The Ponies were knocked out of the Central A Divisional Tournament by the Anaconda Copperheads, 62-51, in loser-out action at the Butte Civic Center.

The Ponies played the seventh-seeded Copperheads very well through two quarters of play. Havre led 9-7 after the first quarter and scored 10 more points in the second to take a 19-16 lead into halftime.

Havre High head coach Dennis Murphy was feeling good about his team's play at intermission - especially on the defensive end of the floor.

"I thought we were playing very well at halftime," Murphy said. "The girls were executing our defensive game plan just like we wanted them to. We were containing Anaconda's top scorers. But unfortunately for us, those same things didn't go our way in the second half."

The Ponies were able to contain Anaconda star Beth Laslovich for most of the game, but several other role players stepped up for Anaconda. Their contributions propelled the Copperheads to a second half in which they outscored the Ponies 46-32 to gain the 11-point win.

"I thought we defended well most of the game," Murphy said. "But Anaconda had a couple of players have career days against us and they shot better than 60 percent from the field in the second half. You combine that with our inability to find some scoring out of other players and the fact that we turned the ball over too much and things like this will happen."

Indeed, one of Havre's biggest problems in the tournament, and the last few weeks, has been finding offense to compliment the outstanding play of senior Carrie Flatau, who scored a game-high 22 points on Friday afternoon. Havre's next-highest scorers were Steph Flatau and Sara Suek, who each had eight points.

The Copperheads got a team-high 21 points from Lorna Kenny while Laslovich and Reggie Hill added 14 points apiece.

Flatau's two-game performance - for a total of 50 points - earned her first team all-tournament honors over the weekend.

"Carrie had a phenomenal tournament," Murphy said. "And Sara Suek played really well for us on Friday. But for us to be successful, we needed more scoring from other places and it just never happened."

 

Reader Comments(0)