The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“I feel like we’re moving forward”
The Crested Butte Titans boy’s basketball team stepped up to a huge challenge this past weekend and while the final score proved one-sided, coach Brandin Hamilton feels his team continues to chip away at the league’s top teams.
The team knew what they were in for Friday, January 24 hosting the Sanford Indians. Nevertheless, morale was positive all week during workouts and the Titans looked forward to the challenge.
“They’re one of the best teams in the state and we were fired up to see how we stacked up against them,” says Hamilton.
Truth is, when you play the second ranked team in the state, you’ve got to put together four flawless quarters of basketball if you want a shot at an upset. And while the Titans aren’t quite there yet, they did prove themselves for at least part of the game.
Once again, the Titans struggled in the opening minutes of the game falling behind 14-0 before Hamilton called a timeout to allow his team time to regroup. For the rest of the first half, the Titans hung in there and got a glimpse of what they’re capable of doing.
“We went toe-to-toe with them,” says Hamilton. “We just dug too deep of a hole.”
Down 31-15 at the half, the Titans were poised to continue the battle in the third quarter but they hit another dry spell on offense and fell further behind eventually falling 60-23 to the Indians.
“We hit another cold spell,” says Hamilton. “The first and third quarters got us.”
Quinn Winter led the team with 10 points followed by Joe Hayes with seven points. Hayes appears to be taking to his new role as point guard and scorer.
“Joe had an outstanding game and was getting us into our offense,” says Hamilton.
The team spent the better portion of the postgame in the locker room figuring out what went right and what went wrong and how to improve.
“We tried to figure out what we could learn from the game,” says Hamilton. “No one was hanging their heads.”
The Titans returned to the court on Saturday to host the Cripple Creek Pioneers and admittedly “took out some frustrations” on the Pioneers.
Still, despite being the better team on the court, the Titans were far from flawless in their execution.
“We scored consistently, we just never dominated,” says Hamilton. “The product on the floor could have looked better for us.”
The Titans opened and finished strong taking down the Pioneers 47-26.
Hayes had another outstanding game leading the team with 15 points with Grant Johnson next dropping in eight points.
The Titans return to the road this Friday, January 31 heading to Sierra Grande to face the Panthers. Hamilton believes that the team is at a crossroads and Sierra Grande will be a good test of which direction the Titans take.
“I feel like we’re moving forward,” says Hamilton. “We’re either going to get over the hump and start to gel or just wallow and keep making the same mistakes. I think we can get over the hump though. The game against Sierra Grande will be interesting. It’s a tough place to go play basketball.”
