Home tip-off tough on Blue Pony boys

The Havre High boys basketball team made its debut this past weekend, but unfortunately for the Blue Ponies, it wasn't the debut they wanted.

Havre opened its 2016-17 season by hosting Sidney and Laurel Friday and Saturday night in the Central/Eastern A Tip-off Tournament and dropped both games, losing to Sidney 58-53, followed by a 57-34 loss to Laurel. Both games were played inside the HHS gymnasium.

"We have a lot of work to do," HHS head coach Curt Leeds said. "We are going to have to figure out an offense and a defense that's going to work for us. So we are going to need to make some adjustments."

In its season-opening game Friday night, the Ponies took on Sidney and in the first quarter, Havre got off a solid start as six points by Jacob LaBrie gave them a 13-10 at the end of the first stanza.

But in the second quarter, the Havre offense went cold. The Eagles scored the first seven points of the quarter and it took Havre more than six minutes to make a basket. When halftime finally came, Sidney had outscored HHS 13-3 over the eight-minute period and the score at intermission was 23-15 in favor of the Eagles.

The Eagles expanded their lead in the third quarter, scoring nine of the first 11 points in the second half to go up 32-17. Ivar Aageson scored five straight points to cut the lead to 10 and later canned a 3-pointer to get Havre within eight at 34-26. But, an 8-3 run by Sidney to close the third gave the Eagles a 42-29 edge heading to the fourth.

In the final stanza, Sidney came out firing. Brett Norby hit two threes in short order and another by Alec Lovegren put the Eagles in front 55-35. It capped an 11-2 run and with just under four minutes to go, seemingly put the game out of reach.

However, with the score 57-38 and just more than two minutes on the clock, Havre put together a remarkable run, scoring 15 unanswered points.

LaBrie connected on two threes, followed by two makes from downtown by Isaac Warp. That made the score 57-50. Then, with 12 seconds remaining, LaBrie hit another trey and suddenly, it was 57-53. The Eagles made a free throw and Havre had a chance to get within two on another 3-pointer, but it didn't go and Sidney held on for the five-point win.

"We just didn't shoot the ball very well," Leeds said. "I think we shot like 27 percent. Those last few shots helped improve that a little, but you aren't going to win very many games when you shoot that percentage."

LaBrie led all scorers in the game with 19 points. Aageson added nine for Havre, while Warp had six. Norby paced Sidney with 17. Dawson McGlothin added 12.

After dropping the game to Sidney, Havre looked to rebound Saturday afternoon against Laurel, in the closing game of the tip-off tournament. But another ice-cold showing from the field would ultimately doom the Ponies.

The start wasn't bad for Havre as the Ponies managed to score 10 points in both the first and second quarters against Laurel. And in fact, HHS did a good job of getting to the free-throw line. But a 2-of-9 first half from the charity stripe helped the Locomotives build a 27-20 halftime advantage.

"That's somewhere we need to do a better job," Leeds said. "We should be shooting in the 70's at the free-throw line, so we need to get that corrected."

In the third quarter, Havre scored just once from the field, while Laurel scored 14 points. That gave the Locomotives a 41-23 lead going into the fourth and from there, the outcome was never in doubt.

Christian Jones led the way for Laurel with 14 points. Shay Osborne contributed with 11 and Layne Willis pitched in with 10. No one scored in double figures for Havre as LaBrie and Ryan Bakke both had seven. Warp and Nate Korb finished with six points each.

"We have a lot of things to work on," Leeds said. "I think some of our issues defensively, are because we are playing a new defense and we have a couple different versions, so that caused some confusion. But offensively, we have to find a way to get to the basket and when we do and when we kick it out for open looks, we have to be able to make some of those shots."

Havre (0-2) will hit the road this week for a pair of Central A conference games. The Ponies will play at Belgrade Friday night, followed by a road game Saturday against Livingston.

Sidney 58, Havre 53

Sidney 12 11 19 16 – 58

Havre 13 2 14 24 – 53

Sidney: Alec Lovegren 6, Trale Jones 6, Jared Steinbeisser 2, Michael McGinnis 8, Brett Norby 17, Dawson McGlothin 12, Bridger Larson 7. Totals: 22 8-16.

Havre: Nate Korb 4, Jacob LaBrie 19, Isaac Warp 6, Bobby Personett 5, Ryan Bakke 5, Ivar Aageson 9, Michael Loftus 5. Totals: 19 7-11.

Total fouls – Sidney 11, Havre 16. Fouled out – none. 3-pointers – Lovegren 2, Norby 4, LaBrie 3, Warp 2, Personett 1, Aageson 2.

Laurel 57, Havre 34

Laurel 15 12 14 16 – 57

Havre 10 10 3 11 – 34

Laurel: Braden Ewalt 2, Isaiah Renner 2, Dante Filpda-Ankney 2, Shay Osborne 11, Christian Jones 14, Connor Schwab 4, Layne Willis 10, Dawson Cortese 8, Colt Spencer 2, Camden Hill 2.

Havre: Nate Korb 6, Jacob Irvin 1, Jacob LaBrie 7, Isaac Warp 6, Ryan Bakke 7, Ivar Aageson 6, Jacob Sedahl 1.