The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“The stuff is all there”
By Than Acuff
After falling at home to the Ignacio Bobcats on Tuesday, December 17, the Crested Butte Titans girls’ basketball team hit the road on Wednesday and came home with a win over Ouray and enter the holiday break with a record of 3-3.
Ignacio was expected to be a tough opponent for the Titans with a physical, heavy pressure style of basketball so the Titans prepared accordingly during workouts prior to the game.
“We had a practice where we did a full court press the whole time,” says coach Anna Bressnick. “We had the JV and even me out there fouling and being really physical with the varsity. We made it tough for them so they knew what it was going to be like.”
Unfortunately, while the Titans may have been as prepared as they could be for the physicality, they didn’t help themselves in the first quarter. While Ignacio did not press, the Titans still struggled and fell behind 13-3 by the end of the first quarter.
“We definitely started out slow for two main factors,” says Bressnick. “We’re still getting used to each other and we’re still young without a ton of game experience.”
The Titans came out in the second quarter a bit more energized with Molly Miller slipping inside on an inbounds play to score but Ignacio called an early timeout and came back on the floor with their press in place to turn the screws on the Titans. Calla Fenlon did slip in from the wing to score and Miller knocked down three of four free throws, but Ignacio’s pressure created chaos for the Titans and the Bobcats carried a 24-10 lead into halftime.
While a game like this could have easily gotten even further away from the Titans in the third quarter, they kept battling. The Bobcats had two starters in foul trouble and Crested Butte traded baskets with the Bobcats as Miller and Lola Wright each put up points for the Titans.
“I know I’ve said it a lot but there is zero quit in any of us,” says Bressnick.
Ignacio didn’t let up though despite their growing lead and continued to press and push in the fourth quarter to eventually hand the Titans a 53-19 loss. Miller led the team with 13 points while Wright scored four.
“They’re just a tough team,” says Bressnick. “We were able to get more shots up and that’s a big deal. We couldn’t do that the first couple of games.”
The Titans then hit the road the next day to face the Ouray Trojans, a match up that would allow the Titans some room to breathe and continue developing.
“We knew it was going to be a much less challenging opponent so I wanted the team to workshop our game and get some swing players good, quality play time so we can continue to build that chemistry,” says Bressnick.
She did ask the starting five to focus on three specific elements in the opening quarter tasking the team to score first, look to the basket and rebound better. The starting five heeded the call as they did all three to take an 8-0 lead by the end of the first quarter. Bressnick then shuffled the deck to get swing players in and the Titans barely skipped a beat to take a 14-0 lead into halftime with points coming from six different players. The Titans remained in control the remainder of the game to finish off the Trojans 22-10. Miller and Fenlon finished with six points each.
“We did get a lot of shots off,” says Bressnick. “It was a good confidence. We didn’t score a lot of points, but we were getting the looks.”
The Titans head into the holiday break 3-3, pretty much where Bressnick expected them to be at this point in the season.
“It’s right where I hoped we’d be,” says Bressnick. “If we can take care of business and steal a few games, we’ll do okay this season. The stuff is all there.”
