The Havre girls’ basketball team stole a (52-38) win in Miles City on Saturday night to open the season. Havre High activities director Mark Irvin interviewed head coach Tommy Brown after the game and the first-year leader gave an underrated aspect of that game that gave his team the chance to get their head coach his first career win.
“Miles City is a tough team. Our girls really came to play and there’s not much more we could’ve asked from them,” Brown said. “They trusted us to put a game plan together and we trusted them to go make plays.”
“One thing that goes underappreciated I think is our bench energy was huge for us, particularly on the defensive side of the ball,” Brown continued. “I think that (gave) the kids on the floor some juice to go out and make some big plays down the stretch.”
Havre will be on a short week, playing two games in three days against Eastern ‘A’ competition. First, the Lady Ponies will go to Lockwood to face the Lions, who beat their opponent by 46 points last week. Brown gave New Media Broadcasters an early scouting report recently ahead of the next opponent.
“Lockwood, they’re a team that’s going to get up and pressure you, so we just have to be prepared for that,” Brown said. “You can tell they place a good emphasis on (the defensive) end.”
“We just have to make sure we’re ready to take care of the basketball and attack that style of aggressive defense,” Brown continued.
Havre will then have a doubleheader for the home opener, taking on East Helena. Brown said even though the Vigilantes open up their season the night before that his team will be ready to go.
“Games like that where you don’t have a lot of film on a team, you really just place the emphasis on your fundamentals as a team,” Brown said. “What we’re preaching and teaching in practice. Stick to the basics. Keep it simple.”
“(If) you don’t know a whole lot about a team, you can always fall back on your fundamentals,” Brown continued.
Havre and Lockwood will tangle for a doubleheader on Thursday night with the girls’ up first around 6pm. Then the Blue Ponies will host East Helena on Saturday and the girls’ game tips off around 4pm. Both games will be played on KOJM-610AM, 98.3FM, and HiLineToday.com with Noah Friedman calling Saturday’s games.
