Tough week of games for CB Titans girls’ basketball

Look to get back on track this week

By Than Acuff

It was a rough stretch for the Crested Butte Titans girls’ basketball team this past week losing to the Gunnison Cowboys at home last Tuesday and then dropping a game to the Del Norte Tigers on Saturday. 

Gunnison would prove to be a big challenge for the Titans with a senior heavy roster and coming into the game on a three-game winning streak while the young Titans team with just one senior in Grace Bogard. The one bit of good news for Crested Butte was the return of Cecilia Naughton to the floor having missed the first part of the season recovering from knee surgery. And while her teammates were noticeably excited about the return of Naughton, the energy on the floor was lacking throughout the first half.

Calla Fenlon did knock down two three-pointers for the Titans in the first quarter, but the Cowboys were able to penetrate and dish the ball to open players to build a 15-6 lead. The Titans’ struggles continued in the second quarter as the Cowboys outscored Crested Butte 16-4 to build 31-10 lead with Ella Davis and Naughton providing the points for the Titans.

“We definitely started slow, and never got going,” says head coach Anna Bressnick. “Calla came out strong shooting with two threes right off the bat, but our offensive flow never settled in, still something we continue to work on.”

Bressnick then mixed things up to start the second half as she looked to some of her bench players to provide a spark. They disrupted Gunnison’s offense enough to slow down the scoring holding the Cowboys to five points through the first five minutes, three of which came from free throws.

“We went to our smaller, quicker defenders, and the plan was to go full court man-to-man, deny passes, high pressure in an attempt to rattle Gunnison and change the pace of the game,” explains Bressnick. “It definitely worked for a few minutes. The message was ‘all out, 100%, leave it on the court’ and they brought it. We came up with this on the fly but see the success in it so have been working on this to incorporate this into our game plan. When most of the teams we are playing are bigger, stronger and better teams than us, we have to find a way to make things happen when we can.”

Unfortunately, their struggles on offense continued with Lola Wright providing the only points for the Titans in the third quarter and Ella Davis dropping in four points in the fourth quarter as Gunnison finished with a 54-17 win.

The going got even tougher for the Titans as they headed to Del Norte to take on the Tigers in front of a raucous crowd on Saturday, February 1.

While the Titans did show improvements in several areas of their game, the Tigers managed to build a 31-6 lead by halftime. 

“We did play pretty solid defense and help defense in the first half,” says Bressnick. “We moved the ball to each other better in the first half than we have been, cut down on some of the turnovers and we got some good open looks for shots, we just couldn’t get them to fall.”

While Crested Butte started to find more success on offense in the second half, the Tigers were determined to defend their home court and handed Crested Butte a 55-21 loss. Molly Miller led the Titans with 17 points.

“They were a tall task, so we knew we had a challenging game ahead of us,” says Bressnick. “Molly Grace got back to usual form with 17 points, four blocks, several steals and Ella Davis stepped in to start and continued to play extremely hard and contribute a lot of intangibles that don’t show up on the score book but make all the difference. We continue to need to find ways to get all five on the court involved.”

The Titans were in Telluride earlier this week but return home this weekend as they host Ridgway for Titans Senior Night on Friday, February 7 at 5:30 p.m. and then Custer County on Saturday, February 8 at 12:30 p.m.

“We match up very well against our next three competitors,” says Bressnick. “We should see less pressure, more zone defense, more opportunities to settle into the game and play it our way, as opposed to being at the mercy of a relentless defense and better talent. Our main goal for the remainder of the season is to bring 100% intensity and focus each day in practice and in games and I believe we have the team fired up and ready to go get some wins. I told them, we need a win, we deserve a win, and we are going to go get some.”