Ponies make up Metra games with Eagles tonight at MSU-N

This past Saturday, the Havre High basketball teams were set to face Lewistown in a pair of games at the Metra in Billings. However, ice on the roads prevented the Blue Ponies from traveling to play the games.

Thankfully for the Ponies and the Golden Eagles, both games were rescheduled for tonight as they will be played at the Armory Gymnasium on the Montana State University-Northern campus right here in Havre.

The night will get started with the HHS boys basketball team playing the Golden Eagles. Lewistown remains undefeated this season with a record of 10-0 and 4-0 in the Northeast A. As the Ponies look to improve over the course of the season, HHS head coach Walynn Burgess believes this challenge will help the Ponies continue to grow.

"It's going to be a good battle for us," Burgess said. "It will be a lot of learning and a lot of growing and we're still fighting towards that end date."

The Ponies and Eagles have already played each other as they competed in Lewistown earlier this month. The Ponies played well in the first half and even took a lead into halftime against the undefeated Eagles. However, the Eagles got rolling in the second half to win 83-51.

The Eagles have many players that can rack up the points. Royce Robinson leads the team averaging 23.7 points and 7.7 rebounds a game this season. Fischer Brown is also dangerous as he averages 21.7 points a game on 50.3 percent shooting. If the Ponies want to slow down the Eagles, they would need to play good defense in the paint.

"If we let them get downhill in the paint, then we're in trouble," Burgess said. "We understand they're going to keep getting rebounds. They've crashed the boards really well so we know we're going to have to get bodies on people to get them out there."

The Ponies enter the game with a record of 9-4 and they are 4-2 in Northeast A competition. This season, the Ponies have been led by Xavier Butler who averages 18.7 points and 7.7 rebounds a game. Since their loss to Lewistown, Havre has won three straight games showing improvement in that time.

"We've been working together on the court and I feel like we keep getting better every day," Burgess said. "(Lewistown) is getting a lot better, too, so we know we're in for a big time battle."

After the boys wrap up, the HHS girl's basketball team will tip off against the Golden Eagles. Lewistown has a record of 3-7 and is 2-2 in the Northeast A. The last time Havre and Lewistown played, the Ponies only won 60-52, so HHS head coach Dustin Kraske expects another fight for the Ponies.

"When we were down in Fergus two weeks ago, I thought they played incredibly hard, played very well together and it was a really nice battle," Kraske said.

In that loss to Havre, Kiya Floran led the Eagles with 13 points and Lexy Burnham scored 12 in the losing effort. While the Eagles did not win the game, Kraske saw plenty from them that could give them trouble in tonight's matchup.

"Against us, they shot the ball incredibly well, so we're going to have to do a better job of having our hands active defensively to try to eliminate some open looks," Kraske said.

The Ponies enter this game with a record of 9-4 and they are undefeated in the Northeast A with a 6-0 record. Amaya Jarvis has been the leader on offense for the Ponies with 15.2 points a game this winter. Ariana Gary will also look to make an impact as she averages 10.0 points a game.

The Ponies were looking forward to competing at the Metra because that is where the Eastern A Divisionals will be held next month. While it is unfortunate that the Ponies did not get to compete there, getting to play these games back on the Hi-Line is the next best option.

The HHS boys basketball game against Lewistown will tip off at Armory Gymnasium tonight at 4:30 p.m. The HHS girls basketball team will then play Lewistown later at 6 p.m.