Titan boys blasted by Telluride Miners

“Good to see that speed and level of play”

There was no doubt Telluride was bringing a high-octane brand of basketball to mighty Mt. Olympus on Friday night to play the Titans. Averaging over 60 points a game with three players averaging at least 10 points per game, the Miners are a force to be reckoned with this season.
“I knew that they have strong seniors and a high-powered offense fueled by pressure defense,” says Titans head coach Brandin Hamilton. “Our big question was who we were going to be that night.
So far, while still early in the season, Hamilton has seen some good things out of his young team. Seniors who have been asked to step up their game are making small steps toward that goal while underclassmen are getting a quick introduction to high school hoops.
“I told the guys before the game, if we were going to have a chance at winning, we’d have to fight, literally fight, for everything,” says Hamilton. “We’d have to be really good at what we do together as a group.”
As predicted, the Miners came out on fire from the opening tip-off. After pulling down two offensive rebounds and scoring, they followed up with a three-pointer to take a 7-0 lead before Hamilton called a timeout to cool things off.
The break afforded the Titans some breathing space and their next trip up the court worked out as they slipped the ball inside to junior Quinn Winter for the Titans’ first bucket of the game.
The Miners returned to their initial attack, though, to score six more unanswered points and close the first quarter with a 13-2 lead.
“I was hoping we could handle the pressure better than we did,” explains Hamilton. “We just couldn’t get into anything.”
The Titans did a better job of handling the pressure in the second quarter and managed to pick the pace of their game up to create opportunities on offense. Winter cut through the key to grab a pass and score and followed that up with another basket in traffic.
A Telluride technical foul put freshman David Wasinger on the line and he knocked both down. Junior Joe Hayes battled to score off an offensive rebound, breathing a little more life into the Titans. But the Miners responded with additional full-court pressure and converted a couple more turnovers into buckets for a 30-11 lead at halftime.
“We did some little things to help alleviate pressure but it kind of came and went,” says Hamilton. “It was too inconsistent.”
Still, progress had been made and the Titans were primed to go toe-to-toe with the Miners—maybe not stage a comeback but at least compete in the third quarter. That is, until they were dealt a blow when Wasinger was forced to leave the game with an injury.
“David was having his best varsity game before he got hurt,” says Hamilton. “He was doing what he needed to do.”
The loss of Wasinger left Hamilton with no choice but to increase playing time for a couple more underclassmen. While their initial role may have been to get fresh legs on the court, they were suddenly thrust into significant time against one of the top 2A programs right now.
They answered the call to a certain extent as freshman Noah Dumas knocked down a huge three-pointer and Broderick Truettner took a dish from senior Tommy Rainville to score.
“Some of the younger guys definitely stepped up,” says Hamilton.
The Miners started filtering in their bench in the fourth quarter with brief stints from their starters and to seal the 57-32 win.
Winter ended up leading the Titans, scoring 18 points.
“I learned some exciting things about our team,” says Hamilton. “We were getting beat all day off the dribble and our rotation was great. They held it together with their team defense.”
On the down side, the Miners crashed the boards from the perimeter and while the Titans had owned the glass their first three games of the season, they couldn’t hold off the Miners’ rebounding prowess.
“What killed us was their guys coming in from the perimeter,” says Hamilton. “We weren’t ready for it.”
Fortunately, Telluride is a non-league game so the loss proved to be another learning experience.
“Its still preseason and you want to find out what kind of flaws you have to make yourselves better,” says Hamilton. “It was good to see that speed and level of play.”
The Titans take a break for the holidays before returning to action in the new year.