The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Blakeley Reynolds first team all league, Mara Pennie named all league honorable mention
[ by Than Acuff ]
Coach Amanda Reynolds summed up the season saying this, “To some degree the season is long, but when it’s coming together, it’s too short.”
The Crested Butte Titans girls basketball team had its fair share of trials and tribulations throughout the 2022 season as they finished with a record of 7-14 and were knocked out of the post season by one of the top 2A teams in the state.
The team was on a bit of a roll heading into their final game against Sanford. They closed out the regular season with a 48-40 win over South Park and then drew Trinidad in the first round of the district tournament.
Just three weeks earlier they needed overtime to take down the Trinidad Miners but it turned out quite differently when the Titans faced Trinidad a second time at home in mighty Mt. Olympus on Monday, February 21.
“Trinidad came in ready to play and expected to give us a game but they just caught us on a day when things were going really well,” says Reynolds.
Which was somewhat surprising as the Titans team had been whittled down to just six players by the time the post season hit, including not a single senior on the floor. Although Reynolds would say otherwise.
“Within the last three weeks we had a group of six that was going to finish out the season,” says Reynolds. “They had so many games in a row together that they just got comfortable with it, with each other and with their roles.”
The Trinidad game was the shining example of that fact as the Titans opened up against the Miners in a groove starting with the game opening three-point basket from Lexi Pickering. Blakeley Reynolds quickly caught fire from all over the court as she scored 13 points in the first quarter alone and, backed by some stingy team defense, the Titans built an 18-9 lead.
The Titans continued to pour it on in the second quarter outscoring the Miners 15-6 for a 33-15 lead by halftime.
“I’ve worked hard all season to get some of them to play in-your-face defense and I think they all came to the game to play defense,” says Amanda.
A slow start to the third quarter by the Titans allowed Trinidad to close within 10 points but Amanda called a timeout, the Titans regrouped and then finished off the third quarter with an 8-2 run as Blakeley, Pickering and Taylor Johnson all worked to re-ignite the Titans’ offense.
And while the Titans closed out the game it wasn’t without an interesting turn of events as aggressive defense can lead to fouls and when you have just six players total, foul trouble takes on a new light. Blakeley, Leigh Harpel, Johnson and Pickering all scored to open the fourth quarter but foul trouble had the Titans down to four players on the floor and then eventually three players total. Fortunately, their sizeable lead was never challenged as they closed out the 58-39 win. Blakeley finished the game with 35 points while Pickering dropped in 14.
“In those games when Blakeley is going off, she’s usually the only one scoring but Lexi had 14 points and that’s huge for us,” says Amanda.
The win sent them to the next round of the district tournament where they met Sanford, at Sanford, the very next day falling 63-19.
“Sanford is just so good,” says Amanda. “They may be one of the top two or three teams in 2A and had six seniors playing where we had no seniors. But we didn’t back down and doubled our offensive output from the first time we played them and we had some moments of brilliance.”
Where does that leave the Titans as they look forward though? According to Amanda, pretty darn good.
“I can say we saw growth across the board and that is success,” explains Amanda. “Also, a lot of the teams in our league are senior heavy this year. I think they’re all committed to off-season work where we can really make a leap as a program. If they do that, we will be able to compete next year.”
