Havre girls’ basketball continued its march towards a state title appearance in Billings, taking on Beaverhead County in the first girls’s semifinal on Friday afternoon for State ‘A’ action. The result was a heartbreaking (46-42) loss for the Ponies as their run for a championship came to an end.
Defense was the name of the game in the first quarter as the Lady Ponies held the Lady Beavers to just six points in the first eight minutes. Tierra Parker rainbowed in a couple triples and it was (13-6) after one. Dillon’s offense picked up in the second, but Havre took a (24-17) lead into the halftime locker room.
Dillon came out of the break on fire, going on a (17-2) run to begin the third. Havre battled back from a seven-point deficit to make it (36-35) Beavers at the end of the quarter. Both teams went back and forth in the final quarter. With the Lady Ponies down by two, a key play happened with 11 seconds to go when Katie Tilleman had an easy layup off an inbounds pass and was rejected from behind that went out of bounds off Havre. The Beavers made their free throws to put the game out of reach.
Parker scored 11 first half points, but was held to just two in the second. Ela Harber was the other leading scorer for the Lady Ponies with 10.
Havre still has a chance to bring home hardware as consolation play gets going on Saturday at 9am. The opponent will be Frenchtown inside the Lockwood High gym. KOJM-610AM, 98.3FM, and HiLineToday.com will cover the action from Billings.
