One Time Only: Ponies and Bison tangle

It’s been a busy couple weeks for both Havre High basketball teams, as they have each played hectic schedules early in the season.

Yet, after tonight, both teams will get a break for the holidays. But before that, each Blue Pony team will face Great Falls High. The Havre boys will host the Bison in the HHS gymnasium. The girls, on the other hand, will travel to Swarthout Fieldhouse. The game in Havre starts at 7, the one in Great Falls begins at 7:30.

For the boys, the game provides a chance for the Ponies to build some momentum, following their 59-56 win over Malta Tuesday. In most years, it would also give Havre a chance to get the first of two wins needed to win back the Ole Goat, but now that Great Falls High and Havre are playing just once, the trophy will not be on the line.

In any case, knocking off the Bison would still be a significant win for the Ponies, who knocked off Great Falls High at home last December. But in order to have a chance at victory, Havre will need to slow down Brendan Howard, who recently set the all-time scoring record for the Bison and plans to play for Eastern Washington in college.

“Obviously, we are going to have to try to find a way to slow him down,” HHS head coach Curt Leeds said of Howard. “We will throw a few different things at him and we might even box-and-one them, but that will be a big key for us, trying to contain him.”

In addition to slowing down Howard, the Ponies will also need to find ways to score consistently on their end of the floor. Jacob LaBrie has been the leading scorer for Havre so far this season with an average of 10.5 points per game. Ivar Aageson is scoring 6.8 points per game, while Nate Korb is averaging 6.2 and Isaac Warp comes in at 5.8.

“We just need to really focus on getting a good shot,” Leeds said. “If that means that we need to be more patient, we will do that, but we just need to keep working and getting good shots. But this will be a good test for us. They are a good team and it’s going to be a challenge.”

Tonight’s game will be the third home game for the Havre boys, but as far as the girls are concerned, their trip to Great Falls High will be their fifth straight on the road to open the season.

Despite playing all of their games on the road, the Ponies come into tonight’s non-conference tilt sporting a 4-0 record thanks to wins over Sidney, Laurel, Belgrade and Livingston.

“It’s just kind of the way that the schedule worked out,” HHS head coach Dustin Kraske said. “But we are excited to go play a very good Great Falls High team. We are looking forward to the challenge.”

One thing that fans can look forward to in the game, is the battle of All-State guards with Hannah Collins of Great Falls and Naomi Terry of Havre going at it. Collins is committed to play for Montana State University-Billings, while Terry, who is averaging 18.5 points a night for Havre, is committed to Montana State University-Northern.

“Hannah Collins, she is a huge part of what they do,” Kraske said. “She has been a great player for their program and we are really going to have our hands full with her.”

Other key players for the Bison include Morgan Evans, Sarah Dutro and Dani Devlin. As far as the Ponies are concerned, they have a number of solid players surrounding Terry, starting with Danielle Wallace, who is averaging seven points and 5.8 rebounds per game.

Freshman Kyndall Keller has also made an early impact for HHS, scoring 10.8 points through the first four games of her high school career. Ceyara Plante also comes in averaging seven points a game for Havre; Marca Herron is averaging 4.8.

“They (Bison) are a really good Class AA program,” Kraske said. “They are well coached and we are going to have to play some really good basketball down there against them. We just need to have that mindset of one possession at a time and treat every possession as its own thing. That is something we have really been talking about a lot lately.”

The Havre boys will host Great Falls High at 7 tonight. The girls team will play the Bison on the road at 7:30. Havre is then off until Jan. 6 when each Pony team takes on Fairfield.