The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
On the road until mid-January
The Crested Butte Titans’ scrimmage against Cotopaxi on Friday provided the coaching staff with insight into where the team is, both on offense and on defense. Practices can offer some idea of how well a team is executing up and down the court but there’s no substitute for game speed.
Based on what coach Brandin Hamilton saw, he’s pretty pleased.
“I liked our energy,” says Hamilton. “I thought, for this early in the season we were able to execute our offense fairly well.”
It didn’t start out so smoothly though, as Cotopaxi came out in the opening minutes of the first quarter penetrating off the top of the key and finding open looks on the perimeter to knock down easy jumpers.
A situation like that often causes panic and a couple of Titan players look to try to make it up on offense with solo efforts.
Instead, the Titans made adjustments, starting on defense.
Senior Jesse Reeves made a point of shutting off the middle from the top of the key and the rest of the team fell into their defensive roles off the ball.
Once the defense tightened up, it opened opportunities for the Titans to set up on offense. Rather than panic, they took control of the game before the close of the first quarter.
“We were just looking at our transition and not really setting up our offense,” says Hamilton. “When we set up our offense we gained some confidence.”
Once Reeves and senior Kane Hamilton proved themselves with the ball, Cotopaxi adjusted opening up the game for senior Ryan Costello.
Costello scored key points throughout the second quarter and second half and was able to crash the boards, finishing the game with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
“We’ve been working really hard on what his role is this year,” says Brandin. “Stay opposite the ball and clean up the glass, and he did just that.”
Brandin got quality minutes from junior Pali Kollar on defense and from junior Tommy Rainville, who pulled in a handful of rebounds and a steal.
Meanwhile, junior Grant Johnson filled his role on offense with solid ball handling and helping to swing the ball across the top.
“Grant did a really good job of holding the ball, which is important,” says Brandin.
Still, with the Titans so early in their season, the game was far from flawless and they did fall into a couple of fits of bad habits on offense. Nevertheless, for all intents and purposes, it was a good showing.
“Our spacing on offense was pretty good and I’m okay with having a mess here and there as long as they’re making good passes and taking good shots,” says Brandin.
Brandin’s biggest concern of offense was rebounding as the Titans gave up several chances at second shots.
“We need to do a better job of going to the offensive glass,” says Brandin. “If we’re not hot, we’ll struggle to score.”
Kane and Reeves finished the game with 23 points each and shot a combined 12 for 13 from the free-throw line to lead the team.
The Titans have Thanksgiving week off from games but will return to action with a tournament in Leadville the final weekend of November.
Their next home game is not until Saturday, January 12.
