Titan boys head into league play

Close non-league schedule with back-to-back wins

The past two games for the Crested Butte Titans boys’ basketball team have been a testament to the team’s depth.
Despite losing starting senior point guard Henry Linehan to illness, the team rallied to fill the holes and put together two impressive wins last week.
The first step to filling the hole left by Linehan: find a point guard. Coach Robin Loyed called on sophomore Jesse Reeves; Reeves responded putting together two double-digit scoring efforts.
“He did a beautiful job handling the pressure,” says Loyed.
Furthermore, senior Jake Grogg stepped up his game with back-to-back double-doubles, posting double-digit numbers both in scoring and rebounding.
But defense wins games and the Titans notoriously stifling defense continued to handcuff their opponents, holding their last two victims to an average of 32.5 points per game. While their team defense is what makes it all work, it wouldn’t be possible without the effort of junior Luis Aguirre who snagged 11 steals over the two games.
“He’s always been our defensive stopper,” says Loyed. “He’s not afraid to get low and get in your face.”
The Titans’ first test without Linehan came against the Sierra Grande on Thursday, January 6. Sierra Grande is known for intensity and facing them, in their gym, is always a daunting task for the Titans.
“We knew it would be a dogfight,” says Loyed.
One sure way to take the bite out of the dog is defense—the Titans muzzled their opponents, holding Sierra Grande to eight points in the first half building a 13-point lead after two quarters.
Sophomore Clifford Gibbens came into the game and immediately sank a three-pointer, pulled down a couple rebounds and tallied an assist and a steal in the span of three minutes to spark a strong third quarter.
“We call him the microwave because he just heats up instantly,” says Loyed.
The Titans added to their lead in the third quarter to build a 32-14 advantage and sealed the 45-32 win in the fourth quarter slowing the pace down and hitting free throws down the stretch.
Grogg shot six for eight from the field to lead the team with 15 points, pulled down 12 rebounds and blocked four shots. Reeves closed his debut at point guard with 13 points and junior Anton Peck scored five points, pulled down seven boards and blocked three shots. Senior Sky Egelhoff added in six assists from the wing feeding Grogg in the post.
“Jake was huge, the whole team stepped up,” says Loyed. “We just took the lead by taking care of the ball and hitting shots. They just could not chip away at our lead. It was a great confidence boost for the team.”
The Titans returned to mighty Mt. Olympus on Saturday, January 8 to host the Lake County Panthers. Again, Reeves was called into action and again he delivered with another outstanding performance from the entire Titans team in support.
The Titans offense sputtered through the first eight minutes but their defense was intact as always, holding the Panthers to just two points in the first quarter.
Lake County made a run at the Titans in the opening minutes of the second quarter, cutting the Titans’ lead to three, but Reeves drained a big three-pointer and the team shot six for nine from the line to take a 20-11 lead into halftime.
“Again the defense just didn’t give them anything and I figured our offense would heat up in the second half,” says Loyed.
In fact the Titans offense caught fire in the third quarter outscoring Lake County 20-4 to build a 40-15 lead. The Titans bench jumped into action as well as Tshering Sherpa joined Grogg battling for rebounds and dropped in seven points. In addition, Logan Bland took over at point guard to give Reeves a break and scored six points as the Titans cruised to a 56-33 win.
“It’s great when the guys contribute from the bench,” says Loyed. “Everyone raised their game a level.”
Reeves led the scoring with 14 points including hitting three of four shots from behind the arc. Grogg maintained his double threat and then some with 12 points, 10 rebounds and five steals and Peck added in 10 points, seven rebounds and four steals. Once again, Egelhoff led the team with six assists making sure the ball got down to Grogg and Peck in the post.
The Titans now enter league play with three games on the road in the next week starting with Cripple Creek on Saturday, January 15. Linehan will remained sidelined but Loyed feels if the team continues to do what they do, they should be in good shape once Linehan is healthy.
“We tend to hold teams down in the first half and break their spirit,” says Loyed. “We’ll see if we can continue to do that. We can hold the fort until Henry gets back—and when he does, watch out.”