Titan girls continue to struggle as lack of experience shows

Looking for some success this weekend

It’s no secret this was going to be a long season for the Crested Butte Titans girls basketball team. They lost their entire starting line-up to graduation after last year, leaving coach Mike Moran with a young and inexperienced squad for the 2015 season.
Furthermore, their league, Southern Peaks, is one of the top 2A leagues in the state and almost all of the teams benefit from a constant supply of committed players.
“They really know how to compete,” says Moran.
Still, going into the games this past weekend, coach Moran was hoping for a bit more than what he saw from his team. Sure, they were destined to lose to both the Center Vikings and the Sanford Indians, but Moran hoped that they could at least bring some game against Center.
“I thought we would have a chance to at least compete with them,” says Moran. “Center came out and just played at a much higher level.”
The trouble started before the opening tip-off when it became evident that Center had a serious size advantage over the Crested Butte team. Then, once the game started, it became evident that Center not only had a size advantage but a speed advantage as well. Those together made for a very tough start for the Titans.
The Titans spent a majority of the first quarter turning the ball over and scrambling on defense as Center’s press completely handcuffed the Titans offense.
“We were completely out of sync on offense and were not ready to play,” says Moran. “We couldn’t get anything going and everybody struggled against the pressure.”
Fortunately, the game remained relatively close through the first quarter as the Titans defense stumped Center, holding them to nine points while Crested Butte managed to sink just one free throw the first eight minutes.
“Our hustle on defense threw them off a little I think, and we stifled them a little bit,” says Moran.
The start of the second quarter provided a glimmering insight into Crested Butte’s future. Freshman point guard Sydney Petersen was fouled and hit both free throws. The next possession, the Titans managed to run their offense getting the ball to sophomore Sydney Buehler, who spun on her defender to hit a four-foot jumper.
Then senior Ariel Kilpatrick pulled down a couple of rebounds and the Titans double-teamed Center’s post player for a couple more highlights, but Center adjusted and scored the next 13 points to take a 25-5 lead into halftime.
The Titans continued to make some progress in the third quarter. Granted, Center dominated the boards to get easy looks, but the Titans started finding seams in the Vikings’ press, providing the highlight of the game when they shredded through the full court pressure to set up Kilpatrick for an easy bucket.
Sophomore Kiara Cottrell knocked down two free throws in the third quarter and then scored when the Titans executed their press break once more in the fourth quarter, but Center was still the dominant team, finishing the Titans 48-11.
“We came out in the second half and did a couple things better but they just dominated us physically,” says Moran.
Things went from tough to brutal as the Titans returned to the court on Saturday, January 10 to host the Sanford Indians. While Center is good, Sanford is one of the best and they went right to work, scoring 21 points in the first quarter alone.
The Indians continued to exploit their advantage inside as their post player finished the game with 30 points and Sanford ran away with a 56-19 win.
“You can’t win if you can’t control the offensive glass and there was nothing we could do on the inside,” says Moran.
On the bright side, the Titans nearly doubled their points from the game before and it looks like Buehler, who scored nine points in the fourth quarter, will be able to help out Petersen at the point guard spot, giving Moran an opportunity to mix things up.
“We’re going to think about some different offenses now, which might make it easier for us to move the ball,” says Moran.
The Titans host the Sargent Farmers on Wednesday, January 14 in Mt. Olympus and then hit the road this weekend to face the Telluride Miners on Friday, January 16 and the Cripple Creek Pioneers on Saturday, January 17.
“We’re hoping to get some success down there,” says Moran.