BILLINGS — Havre and Billings Central's girls basketball teams are slated to write another chapter in their rivalry after both won semifinal games at the Eastern A divisional tournament at First Interstate Arena on Friday.
Havre 40, Lockwood 26
Basketball is a game of runs, and the Havre girls just had to weather the storm Lockwood threw at them in the semifinals of the Eastern A divisional tournament on Friday in Billings.
Havre trailed by as many as 13 before rallying for a 40-26 win over the Lions, punching their ticket to the Class A state tournament and clinching a berth in Saturday’s title game.
“All I said was to settle down and relax. It’s another basketball game. I think the nerves got to the girls early,” first-year Havre head coach Tommy Brown said. “All kudos to the kids. They just went out and played and figured it out.”
Lockwood opened the game on a 13-0 run, but Havre responded with a 14-2 run to end the first half and trailed by just one, 15-14, at halftime.
The Blue Ponies grabbed their first lead of the game just seconds into the third quarter and led by as many as 14 after an Ariana Gary three-point play with 1:24 remaining.
Havre held Lockwood to 28.9% shooting from the field and forced 18 turnovers.
“The kids just absolutely got after it. It was a complete wear-down game. Who knows if that’s the reason they missed shots, but just making it tough on them,” Brown said.
“That’s a good team we just beat out there. They do have a tendency to get hot from anywhere, so you’ve got to come ready to play and do it for 32 minutes.
Gary led all scorers with 14 points and also pulled down seven rebounds. Ela Harber added 10 points for Havre while Dani Jordan led Lockwood with 11.
The Blue Ponies will face Billigns Central in the title game. Havre lost its only meeting against Billings Central 48-32 back on Feb. 1. Lockwood will play Miles City in loser-out action at 9 a.m. on Saturday.
“A really tough, competitive matchup,” Brown said. “I think we know there is a history there, so just looking forward to a real exciting game.”
Billings Central 45, Hardin 36
The night's second semifinal didn't feature the same dramatic swings as the first.
Billings Central led wire-to-wire en route to a 45-36 win over Hardin in the semifinals of the Eastern A divisional tournament.
The Rams jumped to a 29-18 lead at halftime on the back of Kam Reinker's 16 first-half points.
"(Reinker) is a gamer. She's a competitor. She sets the tone a lot of times. She hit some key shots. We fed off of her early and that's what teams do," Billings Central head coach Jetton Ailes said.
"Hardin came to play. (Hardin coach) Cindy (Farmer) does a fantastic job and there's a lot of respect that goes that way. She had them ready and prepared and they came to compete."
Hardin was able to trim the lead to seven, 43-36, after a 3-pointer by Kevee Rogers with 1:12 to play, but the Rams held the Bulldogs scoreless over the final 70 seconds to advance to Saturday's title game.
Reinker led all scorers with 18 points on 7-of-15 shooting and also pulled down 13 rebounds. Rogers led Hardin with 17 points.
Billings Central and Havre are slated to play in the title game at 5 p.m. Saturday night. Hardin will play Lewistown in loser-out play at 9 a.m.
"We're just going to go play a basketball game. The hard part is done. We punched our ticket to state. Now we just lace them up and see who comes to play," Ailes said.
