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Havre High boys visit Glendive and Miles City for the beginning of new-look conference play

A lot of change has happened among Class A in the sports offseason, including a new conference realignment that has pitted new teams against each other.

With Belgrade moving to Class AA and two new Class A schools up and coming in recent years, a shakeup was bound to happen.

Many teams will be playing against new opponents twice a year now, including the Havre High boys basketball squad. In the Ponies' case, there are three new rivals within the Northeast A conference and they will be playing two, the Glendive Red Devils and the Miles City Cowboys, today and Saturday.

Today's game against the Red Devils will be at 7 down in Glendive, followed by another road-game against the Cowboys in Miles City at 1 p.m. Saturday.

The new rivalries will bring about some exciting competition and intense energy.

HHS head coach Walynn Burgess is looking forward to the new faces that his team will go up against, starting with Glendive.

"Glendive is real tough and hard-nosed," Burgess said. "They've got a big 6-4 kid who started for them last year. He's real tough. They got a kid right now, Taven Coon, who's 11-19 from downtown. He's first in the state for shooting 58 percent from shooting downtown, so we really need to make sure where our shooters are, play hard and get after it."

The Red Devils have had their fair share of ups and downs early on already. Similar to Havre, Glendive has played some tough competition like Columbia Falls and Polson. The Red Devils won their opener against the Wildcats, followed by a rough loss to Polson Dec. 7.

The decent start to the season has been nice for Glendive, including certain players. Coon, despite the loss to the Pirates, put up 14 points in the game and is a top dog for shooting 58 percent so far this season. On top of that, height is another big strength for the Red Devils, too.

Burgess is aware of the level of play in Glendive, too.

"Coach Murphy always has their kids playing really hard," said Burgess. "It's a tough place to play traveling all the way to Glendive, then going into a hostile place like that. It's a tough win."

And the next matchup only gets tougher, as the Ponies hit the road to take on an electric 3-1 Miles City program Saturday. For Burgess, it is going to be a big game and an even bigger challenge.

"They just beat Sidney on Tuesday," said Burgess. "They're hard-nosed, fly around on defense and really fast. They have two really good shooters. There's not a lot of height, but they're real quick and play a hard-nosed defense. They get up and down. It's talented there and they got a lot of kids that love to get up and get after it."

In one of the more recent games against St. Labre, the Cowboys had four players in the double figures. Jack Cline led the team with 17 points, followed by Quest Savery with 16, Haden Warren with 13 and Jayden Venable with 11 points. It is safe to say the Miles City squad does not mess around on the court, with the only loss to Hardin.

Even with the tough conference matchups, the Blue Ponies have a lot of exciting highlights early on. Junior Kellen Detrick has proved to be an aggressive and talented player, putting up big games to help his team to victory. Meanwhile, fellow junior Josh Warp has been dangerous at shooting 3-pointers, putting up four against Billings Central last week.

Other players like seniors Mason Rismon, Tyrel Kjersem and Jake Huston have made their mark on the early season, too, with calculated shots and big drives to the basket. At the same time, junior Clint Owens has been a force standing at 6-5, leading the charge and snagging key rebounds on in the interior. Fellow junior Nolan Lotton has already looked sharp in his increased role as well.

Especially after taking down the defending Class A state champs, Billings Central, Havre is in pretty good spirits going forward. But the big test against the new conference will be a great challenge. For Burgess, his team just has to stick to key points to succeed today and Saturday.

"It's going to be two good conference challenges that we're looking forward to," Burgess said. "We got to handle pressure. We got to keep people off the boards. We can't give up as many offensive boards as we did last weekend. We love to get up and down the floor and put up points on the board. That's just how we play. If we can do those things and make sure we're pressuring on defense, we're looking for some good things for sure."

Havre (1-1) starts the Northeast A play today down in Glendive (1-1) against the Red Devils at 7, followed by a tough matchup on the road against the Cowboys (3-1) at 1 p.m. on Saturday in Miles City. The road trip is Havre's final two games before Christmas break.

 

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