HHS girls fall short at Great Falls High

After earning two straight conference wins last weekend, the Havre High girls basketball team was looking for a third straight win, this time against a tough nonconference opponent on the road.

Thursday night the Central A Blue Ponies were in Great Falls where they took on the Class AA GFH Bison. But in what just seemed like an off night for the Ponies, it was the Bison that grabbed the 54-41 win. With the loss, the Ponies now sit at 2-3 overall.

"We didn't put a full defensive game together," Havre High head coach Dustin Kraske said. "Therefore our offense struggled. We tried trapping, but our rotation was slow and we gave up layups. We have played better basketball and we just weren't quite ready to go and I blame myself for that. The coaching staff ahs to do a better job getting the kids ready to play and we just didn't do that tonight."

HHS fell behind 11-6 after the first quarter, but put together a decent second quarter to stay in contention. The Bison put up 13, second quarter points and the Ponies topped that with 17 of their own. It was a 24-23 Bison lead at the half, but the Ponies just couldn't get over the hump in the second half.

Great Falls outscored the Ponies 30-18 in the second half.

It was an off night for Havre High, but Kraske said to the Bison's credit, they just put together a solid game. They played well on both sides of the ball and earned the win.

Chanal Standing Rock led the Ponies with 13 points and Sammy Evans produced nine. Jaclyn Evans also added seven points, while Peyton Filius added six.

HHS will play again after the Holiday Break, hosting Lewistown on Jan. 6 in conference play.

Great Falls 54, Havre 41

Havre 6 17 5 13 – 41

Great Falls 11 13 13 17 – 54

Havre – Brandy Lambourne 2, Jaclyn Evans 7, Morgan Mazurkiewicz 2, Sammy Evans 9, Lacey Waid 2, Peyton Filius 6, Chanal Standing Rock 13

Great Falls – Katie Schermele 2, Markayla Francis 9, Katie Dolan 13, Macaulea Romsa 5, Kelsey Devlin 12, Callee Remsen 6, Kumm 5