The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Small steps in the right direction
by Than Acuff
While the Crested Butte Titans girls basketball team continues to fall to league opponents week in and week out, things are not as bad as they seem on the score sheet. Sure, they lost at home to the Del Norte Tigers and on the road to the Sargent Farmers, but there continue to be glimmers each and every game for the girls.
“As far as confidence goes, we’re 100 percent better. We’re much more confident with the ball than at the start of the season,” says coach Vaden Holmes.
The start of their game against the Del Norte Tigers on Friday, January 26 was a bit of a mess for the Titans. While they did hang with Del Norte for the opening minutes with Siena and Sophia Truex each dropping in a basket and Kate Sherman fighting for rebounds, Del Norte forced Crested Butte into several turnovers and soon took control of the game to build a 22-5 lead by the end of the first quarter.
“We went into the game knowing Del Norte was a good team and the girls put a lot of pressure on themselves,” says Holmes.
The Tigers maintained their pressure defense and patient offense to continue pouring in points throughout the second quarter to take a 41-7 lead into halftime.
But, as has been the case for the past several years, there’s no quit in the Titans. They came out of the locker room recharged and put together a strong third quarter. Sophia started driving to the basket, scoring four points quickly, Siena dropped in a 12-foot jumper and Catherine Washburn hit a free throw to outscore Del Norte 7-6 in the third quarter.
“I told the girls at halftime that Del Norte is good but do we really want to go out this way?” says Holmes. “I told the girls to make Del Norte work for their points and try to rattle them a little bit and I think it kind of motivated them. It was a great third quarter.”
While the effort was admirable, the points stopped falling in the fourth quarter as Del Norte finished where they left off in the first half to fire off 11 points down the stretch for the 58-17 win. Siena and Sophia each finished the game with eight points apiece.
“A lot of it has to do with experience and compatibility,” says Holmes. “It’s hard for us to be in sync. Overall I was pleased with the Del Norte game; they’re doing what they are capable of doing right now.”
The Titans then headed to Sargent on Saturday, January 27 to face the Farmers. Things were tough for the Titans, as they ended up losing 48-8.
“We came out flat-footed and were just really out of whack,” says Holmes. “I don’t really know what it was but we didn’t play as well as we did against Del Norte.”
The girls hit the road on Thursday to take on Cotopaxi and then come back to Crested Butte to host the Sanford Indians Saturday, February 3. Tip-off for the varsity is at 2:30 p.m.
