The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Titans suffer shooting woes
These are the dog days of the Titans basketball season. Just when doctors cleared senior point guard Henry Linehan to return to action, the team lost sophomore scoring sensation Jesse Reeves to a broken thumb.
Furthermore, out of the past 12 Titans games, three have been at home. But when they got to play in mighty Mt. Olympus on Friday night against the Del Norte Tigers, the hope was that the home gym would hold some magic.
Unfortunately, it did not, as the Titans shot a woeful 36 percent from the field and fouled Del Norte a total of 26 times, falling short.
“I told the guys we were looking like the Oakland Raiders out there,” says coach Robin Loyed.
The Titans couldn’t buy a basket, which happens, early in the game. Still, when it happens, the Titans defense tends to keep them in the game or even with a lead. But Friday night, not even their defense was there to help out.
“Our defense lost its focus in a number of ways,” says Loyed. “We just couldn’t bring our normal defensive intensity.”
Del Norte seemed to penetrate the lane at will and either got fouled or scored. Crested Butte hung in through the first quarter until the final minute. After four big points from junior Luis Aguirre, including a three point shot, the Tigers closed the first quarter, grabbing an offensive rebound and scoring. They proceeded to open the second quarter, scoring six straight points and taking a 23-14 lead before Loyed was forced to call a timeout.
Continued cold shooting by the Titans allowed Del Norte to build an 11-point lead midway through the second period.
At this point, Loyed turned to his half court trap defense, a move notorious for turning games around in minutes. The move worked temporarily but Del Norte eventually cracked the code to take an eight-point lead into halftime.
Despite having junior Anton Peck sit out most of the third quarter in foul trouble, the Titans made a run at Del Norte, capped by a steal and basket from senior Sky Egelhoff that cut the Tigers’ lead down to four by the end of the third quarter.
Del Norte opened the fourth quarter with a 10-4 run to go up 49-39 with four minutes left to play. Senior post player Jake Grogg, Peck and senior Max Molitor all fouled out in the fourth quarter. Despite the efforts of senior Henry Linehan, the Titans could not reel Del Norte in for good losing 60-52.
Linehan finished the game with a team-leading 18 points, Peck scored 10 and Aguirre and junior Logan Bland each added in six points.
“It was disappointing but Del Norte is a quality team,” says Loyed.
The Titans returned to the road the following day, heading back to the San Luis Valley to face Sangre de Cristo and one of the top five scorers in the state who stands six feet, seven inches tall.
The game opened as a near repeat of the night before, as the Titans shot a dismal three-for-18 in the first half.
The big difference came on the defensive end of things as Peck shut down their notorious scorer and the Titans were behind just 11-7 at the half. That’s right, it was 11-7 at halftime.
“It was a strange game,” admits Loyed.
It was during the second half that all of the Titans’ work on defense started to pay off. A stifling by Crested Butte’s defense handcuffed Sangre de Cristo until Peck and the Titans offense finally found their game.
“We started to take care of the basketball and get it into Anton in the paint,” says Loyed. “Anton put the team on his back.”
Peck finished the game with 22 points and seven rebounds while holding Sangre’s big man to just eight points as the Titans escaped with a 28-21 win.
“We found a way to get the W,” says Loyed.
The Titans now enter the meat of their schedule, facing the top three teams in the league in their next three games. Fortunately, the three games also kick off a four-game home stand in mighty Mt. Olympus starting this Saturday, February 5 with tip-off at 5:30 p.m.
“We’ve got a great stretch ahead of us,” says Loyed. “I hope people come out and watch the games because they’re going to be barnburners.”
