The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“We basically went all in and it worked”
It wasn’t going to be pretty when the Lady Titans headed to Sanford Friday night, there was no doubt about that. First of all, Sanford is one of the top teams in the Southern Peaks 2A league. Secondly, the Lady Titans were going into Sanford’s gym. Thirdly, and most important, the Lady Titans were missing three players, two of whom are the top scorers and all three of whom are the teams’ top rebounders.
“We were really thin this weekend,” admits coach Brandin Hamilton.
As a result, Hamilton’s plan was more focused on damage control and patience in an effort to slow the Sanford assault down.
“Our game plan was to try to slow the game down and execute the offense,” says Hamilton.
Unfortunately, while the Lady Titans were successful at running time off the clock, once they did look to run a play, Sanford was all over them.
In the end, Sanford proved out of Crested Butte’s league, with lights-out shooting and ferocious rebounding.
“They’re on another level,” says Hamilton. “They would send five girls to the boards.”
Despite being outmatched, eventually losing 58-12, Hamilton looked to his team to keep working hard in the second half and prove they wouldn’t go down without a fight.
The Lady Titans responded and Hamilton saw a physical side of his players that he had not seen all season.
“I saw some extremely good things from certain players,” says Hamilton.
The Lady Titans took what they learned from the Sanford game into the next day as they headed to Center, again without their top two scorers and top three rebounders.
Center sat back in a zone defense, reluctant to force the pace of the game. While the Lady Titans managed to shred the zone defense for solid shots, the shots weren’t falling.
“We were executing everything we wanted to—we just weren’t hitting our shots,” says Hamilton.
After leading most of the game, shooting just 24 percent eventually took its toll on the Lady Titans and Center managed to build a 26-20 lead with four minutes left in the game.
Hamilton called a timeout and explained to the team that it was time for a gut check and to go back on the floor and play full court denial defense, force turnovers and get easy lay-ups.
“We basically went all-in, and it worked,” explains Hamilton.
Freshman Shannon Costello ramped up her defensive effort, maintaining constant ball pressure on the perimeter.
“Costello was just a terror to whoever had the ball,” says Hamilton. “She just created a nightmare for everyone.”
Meanwhile, sophomore Madie Stichter finished the job, scoring eight points in the fourth quarter as the Lady Titans finished the game with a 10-0 run to win 30-26.
Stichter finished the game with a team-leading 14 points and Costello added seven.
“We caused a lot of chaos for them,” says Hamilton. “It was pretty exciting.”
The Lady Titans’ record now stands at 8-4. They return to mighty Mt. Olympus to host Del Norte on Friday, January 28 with the tip-off tentatively scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
While Del Norte is one of the top teams in the league, the Lady Titans will get a boost from senior Shannon Holleran, who will be back in the line-up starting this weekend.
