The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“My goal is by Christmas we’re 4-1”
By Than Acuff
The Crested Butte Titans girls’ basketball season opened the 2025-2026 season on the road against the Salida Spartans on Tuesday, December 2 and fell 52-6. It was about as tough of an opponent any 2A team could open a season with as the Spartans were ranked fifth in the 3A preseason polls. But as coach Anna Bressinck put it, “we knew we were going to run into a buzzsaw and now we move forward.”
Salida opened up a 14-0 lead on the Titans as their fast-paced offense, stifling defense and brutal press kept the Titans in a state of flux throughout the first quarter. Rio Crabtree and Lola Wright each knocked down a free throw, but Salida had the final say of the first quarter to finish it ahead 16-2.
The Titans made some adjustments on their press break that showed promise while their team defense clamped down holding Salida scoreless the first two and a half minutes of the second quarter. Molly Miller did eventually find some room to knock down a six-foot jump shot and while Salida did eventually start scoring, they were held to seven points the entire quarter to take a 23-4 lead into halftime.
“We kind of got into a flow toward the end of the first half,” says Bessinck. “Our goal was to hold them to 40 points for the game, and we had them at 23 after the first half so we were doing pretty good.”
Miller opened the third quarter with a layup, but Salida switched their press up again and turned the screws on defense to get their rhythm back to rattle off 14 more points and go up 37-6 by the end of the third quarter. Despite their sizeable lead, Salida continued to push the pace for nearly the rest of the game scoring an additional 15 points while keeping the Titans scoreless to finish the game with a 52-6 win.
“They were a tough team, we knew they’d be a tough task for sure,” says Bressinck. “As a whole I feel like we played good defense against a really, really good team. We’re going to have to score more points, and we could have quit. But, up to the end we were still on the floor, pushing and hustling. For game one against a team like that I’ll take it.”
The good news is the Titans had only six practices leading up to the tough opener and now have a three-day block of workouts before their next game when they host Cotopaxi on Saturday, December 6 at 4:30 p.m.
“I’m looking forward to having three good practices and then play Cotopaxi at home,” says Bressinck. “That’ll be a much more competitive game for us.”
The Titans then have another four-day block of training before they head to Grand Junction for two games and then close out the first stretch of games before the holiday break with a home game against Ouray on Wednesday, December 17.
“My goal is by Christmas we’re 4-1,” says Bressinck.
