Ponies top CMR, again

Non-conference games generally don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things when it comes to high school basketball. But after losing four of five games coming into Saturday’s showdown with CMR in Great Falls, the Havre High boys basketball team was in need of a win, non-conference or not. And the Ponies played like they needed a win.

The Blue Ponies faced some adversity in the form of an eight-point halftime deficit Saturday night, but they persevered and made the plays needed to escape the CMR Fieldhouse with an important 45-43 victory.

Back on Dec. 13, the Ponies beat the Rustlers on a free throw by Dane Warp with no time left on the clock. And Saturday, Warp made another clutch shot, this time it was from the field and it broke a 43-43 tie with 15 seconds left.

The big shot from Warp capped an impressive second half for the Ponies, who outscored the Rustlers by 10 over the final 16 minutes of play to secure the season sweep of CMR, while simultaneously giving HHS some much-needed momentum for the stretch run of the regular season.

“I was really proud of the kids. Beating CMR on the road is always going to be tough and I was really happy with how we stepped up defensively,” HHS head coach Curt Leeds said. “We knew that CMR plays good defense and that we would have to match them defensively to win this game. And I think our defense really improved from (last) Thursday night to Saturday and that’s just something we need to keep doing consistently is playing at a high level defensively.”

Both teams started sluggishly on the offensive end and at the end of the first quarter, the score was tied up at 6-6. Yet, in the second, the Rustlers found a rhythm and scored 23 points compared to just 15 for Havre and at halftime CMR possessed a 29-21 advantage.

But in the third quarter, the Pony defense dominated. Havre held CMR to just four points in the first eight minutes of the second half and after scoring 11 points of its own, the CMR lead was down to 33-32 going into the fourth.

“We just communicated real well in that third quarter defensively,” Leeds said. “We switched when we needed to switch, and we never left anyone wide open. No one had an easy shot or easy driving lane, and we also rebounded really well, too.”

Then, Havre finally pulled ahead and held a 43-40 edge with less than a minute to play in the game. But, the Rustlers refused to go quietly into the night and when Karl Tucker hit a 3-pointer to tie the score at 43-43, it seemed overtime was on the horizon.

However, Warp and the Ponies had other ideas.

On the ensuing possession Warp drilled the 2-point jumper that put Havre up two with 15 ticks left on the clock. CMR had a chance to tie and actually attempted two shots but both went awry, leaving the Ponies to celebrate a hard-earned win.

“Dane always seems to find a way to get a basket when we need it,” Leeds said. “He’s tough to guard because he scored off his jump shot or going to the hoop. So he kind of has the choice of what’s he’s going to do.”

Offensively, it was all about Warp for the Ponies, who failed to score in the first quarter but still finished with a game-high 23 points, all coming in the final three quarters to lead Havre to victory. No other Havre played scored in double figures but Jacob LaBrie made a pair of 3-pointers on his way to an eight-point outing and Nate Rismon also added seven. Michael Bakke only scored two points but made his presence felt in other ways with a game-high nine rebounds to go along with three assists.

Tucker was the star of the show for CMR and contributed with 14 points in a losing effort. Andrew Grinde also pitched in with eight points for the Rustlers.

Thanks to their comeback win, the Ponies not only improved to 9-5 overall, they also completed a rare season sweep of CMR. The Ponies will be back in action Friday when they host Fairfield before travelling to Lewistown Saturday for a critical Central A conference matchup.

“I was really pleased, the boys never put their heads down,” Leeds said. “Even when we were down by eight points at halftime, I told them that we were playing good defense we just weren’t shooting a high percentage but that if we can keep playing defense like that we are going be pretty tough to beat.”

Havre 45, CMR 43

Havre 6 15 11 13 - 45

CMR 6 23 4 10 - 43

Havre - Jerod Boles 0-3 1-2 1, Nate Rismon 2-7 2-2 7, Dane Warp 6-16 11-15 23, Nate Korb 0-0 0-0 0, Jacob LaBrie 3-5 0-0 8, Michel Bakke 1-5 0-2 2, Wyatt Lindbloom 2-4 0-0 4, Jase Kato 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 14-41 14-21 45

C.M. Russell - Chris Moore 1-4 0-0 2, Andrew Grinde 3-11 1-1 8, Jarrod Simmons 0-3 0-0 0, Xavier Pace 0-0 0-0 0, Yancy Gagne 1-8 2-3 4, Trevor Pepin 2-4 0-0 4, Karl Tucker II 6-13 1-3 14, Sam Vining 3-3 0-0 9, Zach Harper 1-1 0-0 2, Zach Johnson 0-3 0-0 0, Jordan Wanner 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 17-51 4-7 43.

3-point goals - Havre 3-13 (Rismon 1-3, Warp 0-5, LaBrie 2-3, Bakke 0-1, Lindbloom 0-1), CMR 5-15 (Moore 0-1, Grind3 1-5, Simmons 0-1, Gane 0-2, Tucker II 1-2, Vining 3-3, Johnson 0-1). Fouled out - none. Rebounds - Havre 36 (Team 10, Bakke 9), CMR 30 (Moore 5, Grinde 5, Team 4). Assists - Havre 5 (Bakke 3), CMR 4 (Tucker II 3). Turnovers - Havre 7, CMR 3. Total fouls - Havre 9, CMR 17. Technical fouls - Tucker II, Wanner.