The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“A lot of what was happening was panic”
by Than Acuff
A slow start made for another tough run for the Crested Butte Titans girls basketball team as they fell to the Ouray Trojans 37-13 on Friday, December 7 in mighty Mt. Olympus.
The energy in the gym was pretty high, with the hometown crowd looking to see the girls play their first home game of the season and the new Titan mascot unveiled. Unfortunately, that energy turned into chaos for the Titans on the court as the Trojans set the tone from the opening tip-off and jumped out to an 11-0 lead by the end of the first quarter.
“I thought Ouray was definitely disciplined and, again, we came out flat-footed,” says coach Vaden Holmes.
Ouray’s man-to-man defense created mayhem for the Titans as they struggled to find open passes and allowed Ouray to decide how the game was going to be played.
“They determined the pace rather than us,” says Holmes. “A lot of what was happening was panic.”
The Titans looked to bring the game back into their hands as they opened the second quarter pressing with both Siena Truex and Kelly Sherman coming up with big plays defensively. The Titans struggled to turn those turnovers into baskets though and Ouray figured out the pressure to put up four more points.
The Titans finally broke their scoring snafu when Madison Pankey dropped in a 14-foot jumper and the Titans tacked on two more points but were still down 18-4 at halftime.
“We had a conversation about stepping up their game at halftime,” says Holmes.
Sophia Truex took those words to heart as she hustled back on defense to break up a breakaway and the Titans looked much more patient on offense but still couldn’t find any seams to the basket
Pankey dropped in another jumper but the Titans missed on four free throws and were down 24-6 heading into the fourth quarter.
Things looked remarkably better in the fourth for the Titans than the way the game started. Siena hit a three-pointer, Pankey knocked down two free throws and Sophia tacked on one more bucket but the game was out of reach as Ouray closed out the 37-13 win. Pankey led the Titans with eight points.
“We got better,” says Holmes, “more in sync and started playing a little better. We just have so many new players that finding cohesion is difficult right now.”
The Titans hit the road this weekend as they head to the San Juan Mountains to play the Telluride Miners.
“It’s going to be another battle for sure,” says Holmes.
