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NEVER BACKING DOWN

In the gym, in pressure-packed games, or a bout with a serious medical condition, Havre High's Naomi Terry has always persevered

The Havre High girls basketball program has produced a lot of great players over the years, but one of the better ones in recent memory has got to be Naomi Terry.

For the past few years, Terry has racked up achievements and awards, and during her impressive career, she has pretty much done it all.

When she earns All-Conference honors this season, it will be for the third time and when she is named Class A All-State later this month, it will be the second. She has also been part of two divisional championship teams and even sat on the bench for Havre's state title run in 2014, when she was just a freshman.

It's true that Terry, who has been starting for each of the past three seasons, has done just about everything you can do in a Havre uniform. Yet as she gets ready to play in her last state tournament starting Thursday in Butte (2:30 p.m.) at the Butte Civic Center, Terry is as hungry to win as she's ever been.

"Winning a state championship, that was one of the best experiences of my life," Terry said. "Even though I just sat on the bench. It was so much fun. It's hard to really describe it. But it would be really sweet to go out with some hardware. Last year, we lost out in the morning (on Saturday at the state tournament) and the year before, we did the same thing. I just feel like we have such a good team. We have a bunch of players who can score, and it's a little more spread out than it has been the past couple years. It's a lot like it was my freshman year, when we had so many key components on that team, it would just be really sweet to end it with a trophy."

In order to do that, Terry won't just need to be good, she will need to be great. For starters, Havre opens the state tournament Thursday against Butte Central, the defending Class A state champion, in Butte.

Knocking off the Maroons will be challenging enough, in what will essentially be a road game for the Ponies, but even if Havre gets past Butte Central, it will likely run into Columbia Falls Friday night in the semifinals, the team that is considered by many to be the prohibitive favorite to win it all.

But if we have learned anything over the past few years about Terry, it's that she likes to rise to the occasion and moments like this are ones that she lives for.

"I do feel the pressure," Terry said. "With me being a senior, I know a lot of times it's up to me to have the ball in key situations. Like when we are up at the end of the game, I always make sure to get the ball to shoot free throws. I feel that pressure, but I am not afraid of it. I enjoy it. I want to have the ball when the game is on the line."

It's true that Terry doesn't shy away from the big moments or the big stage. She has been instrumental in helping Havre earn its last three state tournament berths and if the Ponies are going to play Saturday night in Butte, the senior will undoubtedly be a big part of it.

"She does a lot for us," HHS head coach Dustin Kraske said. "She has always had a lot of responsibility on her shoulders. I think she has grown up a lot as a kid in our program, from her freshman year to now."

Like many Havre girls basketball players, Terry has improved so much, because she has worked so hard. While Terry and Kraske don't always see eye-to-eye on everything, she said there is no doubt, he helped her realize her potential.

"We are both kind of stubborn," Terry joked about her head coach. "He will see things that he thinks we should do, but I see things, too. He chews my butt quite a bit, but when he says something to me, I will fire right back with something. We get along really well, but we butt heads, too. I think it's just cause we are so competitive, but really, I couldn't ask for a better coach."

Under Kraske's tutelage and her own impressive skills as a shooter, scorer and all-around player, Terry earned a scholarship to play college hoops for Montana State University-Northern. When she signed with the Skylights last fall, it was a dream come true for the Havre senior. However, her dream, came on the heels of a nightmare, as a medical scare nearly caused everything to come crashing down.

"About the end of June, I was sick and it felt like a cold," Terry said. "And I remember we went to the Fairfield tournament and I was in pain, but I just kept playing. Then we went to Laurel and on the drive down, my right side hurt. It felt like a kink in your neck but lower. But I played and on the way back, it was worse. I didn't really worry about it. I thought I just maybe bruised a rib or something. But then we had the Havre basketball camp right after we got back. I went to the morning session and I couldn't run, I couldn't even shoot. I didn't know what was going on.

"Then I went home and it kept getting worse. I told coach (Kraske) I was just going to come back to camp and watch, then I went back home and it all hit me like at once. I couldn't even talk," She added. "Then I just crawled up the stairs and my dad was standing there and he got me in the car right away and took me to the emergency room."

After a visit to the emergency room in Havre, Terry and her family headed for Great Falls. After stopping for medical treatment in Fort Benton, she made it to the emergency room, where she was eventually diagnosed with blood clots in her lungs and told she may not play basketball or any contact sport ever again.

"I remember when they said I had blood clots, we didn't really believe them," Terry said. "We thought it was kidney stones or something like that, we didn't think it was something that serious. But they said it was blood clots and I just remember being shocked. And then the doctor said he didn't think I would be able play sports ever again."

Four days later, Terry was finally released. By then, she knew she would be able to play sports again, but she also knew the road back was going to be anything but easy.

"At first, I thought 'whoa' when the doctor said I wouldn't play sports again," Terry said. "But when I looked at my scan there were some pretty big ones (blood clots) there. By the time I left, I knew I would be able to play, they said I would be able to play sports again, just not volleyball."

Of course, Terry played volleyball anyway. It took her a while, but by the end of the season, and despite another hospital scare, she finished the fall season. Then, she set her sights on basketball, not knowing if she would be able to play at the same level as before.

"I finally got back to myself at the beginning of basketball," Terry said. "But it took me a while. I remember at the end of the summer, they told me I could shoot and I nearly passed out, I think just because of all the blood thinners. They just made me feel light headed and I had to sit out all the time. In volleyball, I would get tired all the time, but volleyball isn't a strenuous as basketball, so when the season started, when we were down in Sidney, it felt like I hadn't played in a game, because I hadn't. It probably took me three or four weeks into the season before I finally started to feel like myself."

The scare may have passed and it allowed Terry to not only resume her career, but also earn the scholarship she had dreamed of for so long. Yet her medical issues are far from over, even if they have resided.

"My doctor told me this is something I will always have, I will always have to watch it," Terry said. "Because they still don't really know what caused it. So I am still getting my blood drawn every two weeks, just to make sure everything is going good. The pain came back once during volleyball and I had to go back to the ER, but since then, everything has been good."

Terry may not have been 100 percent right away to start the basketball season, but she sure seemed like it. And after averaging 12 points as a sophomore and 13 as a junior, she pushed her scoring average to 14.6 this past season, which ranks seventh among all Class A players.

Terry's play helped a young Havre team that features just three seniors, go 13-5 in the regular season, as well as finish second at the Eastern A Divisional. HHS lost to Hardin in the championship game, but when the Ponies took on Laurel in the semifinals, with a state tournament berth on the line, Terry was her usual stone-cold self, scoring 16 points and making a bunch of clutch free throws down the stretch to ice the win.

"She is impressive on the floor," Kraske said. "The work ethic she has shown to get her skills where they are at has been second to none. She spends a lot of time in the gym and wants to be really good. With her playing this year, I think she has had as good a senior year as she probably could have. She probably would have liked to score a few more points, but who wouldn't? She's had a good career at Havre High School. It's going be really neat to see her play a few more games this weekend, but I am going to be sad that it's done."

As far as Terry is concerned, it's also hard to believe it's her last weekend as a Blue Pony, which is why she is so determined to go out, the way she wants, by playing Saturday night at the state tournament.

"I don't think it's really going to hit me until it's all over," Terry said. "Winning state was the funnest thing I have been a part of, but this year, being one of the key players and a senior, it would be the best way for me to go out. There is no better feeling. I remember everything from my freshman year like it was yesterday, so if we could do that again, I couldn't imagine ending it any better."

As Terry knows better than most, there are no guarantees in life. It was no sure thing that she would make it back this season and it's far from a sure thing that Havre will win a state championship or even make it to Saturday night. But that doesn't bother Terry; she's just glad to have the chance to play at state one more time, with one last chance to live out her high-school hoop dreams.

 

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