Four Ponies earn All Northeast A

It was another strong season for the Havre High boys basketball team.

The Blue Ponies finished with an 8-4 overall record and went 7-1 in the Northeast A to finish first in the conference. Despite falling in the Eastern A Divisional to end the season, their performance earned several of their players honors on both the all-state and all-conference teams.

All four players who earned the honors were seniors, making it a fitting end to their successful tenure at Havre.

Kellen Detrick was the only Pony to be named to both the all-state and all-conference teams this season. He was third in Class A averaging 16.8 points per game and sixth with 8.1 rebounds a game. He is not unfamiliar to the honors as he made both teams last season as well. In both his junior and senior years, he got the most votes for the all-state team for a player from the Northeast A.

"On the basketball court, it

was night in and night out for that guy," said Havre head coach Walynn Burgess. "Just the work and all the extra time he puts in in the weight room and doing the foot work and stuff like that really pays off in the end."

Detrick was one of three players from the Northeast A conference on the All-State team.

Havre's Josh Warp was also named to the all-conference team in back-to-back seasons. However, he demonstrated his improvement as a player as he went from the all-conference second team in 2020 to the all-conference first team in 2021. Burgess believes that Warp's strong work ethic is why he improved as a player and earned a scholarship to the University of Providence.

"There wasn't a day that goes by that he wasn't in the gym either with us or getting in there on his own getting extra shots," Burgess said. "We really enjoyed having him around and just the work ethic from him, there's a reason why he's got a college scholarship now and going somewhere - it's because of the time and the work he'd put in."

Warp finished his senior season averaging 10.8 points a game and he led the Ponies with 45 total assists. He also led Class A with an 89.2 shooting percentage from the free-throw line.

Fellow Ponies that were named to all-conference include Clint Owens on the all-conference second team and Nolan Lotton as an honorable mention. Owens had been a starter for the Ponies for two and a half years, so Burgess is happy that he finally got his recognition.

"For him to get on the second team this year is something really special to us," Burgess said. "He deserved it and I thought he really worked for it. There wasn't a time on the court that he wasn't giving you 110 percent being that junkyard dog."

While Lotton did not light up the scoreboard, he was often tasked with shutting down the opponents' best players.

"Night in and night out, he knew and we knew that he would be on their best scorer," Burgess said. "We don't go 7-1 without Nolan Lotton on our team to do the defensive effort."

Northeastern A All-Conference

First Team: Kellen Detrick, Havre; Josh Warp, Havre; Royce Robinson, Lewistown; Dalton Polesky, Miles City; Michael Murphy, Glendive

Second Team: Clint Owens, Havre; Bryce Graham, Lewistown; Parker Buckley, Glendive; Max Eaton, Glendive; Jayden Venable, Miles City

Honorable Mention: Nolan Lotton, Havre; Luke Clinton, Lewistown; Jalen Robinson, Lewistown; Ryder Lee, Miles City; Jerome Entz, Sidney.