The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“We’re starting to realize we’re a second half team”
By Than Acuff
The Crested Butte Titans girls’ basketball team headed into the holiday break on a roll as they took down the Ouray Trojans on Wednesday, December 17 for their third win in a row to improve their record to 3-2.
The Ouray girls program came back from oblivion last year and in their first season back after a three-year break, they struggled with an 0-22 record including a 22-10 loss to the Titans.
This year though, they came into Crested Butte with two wins under their belt led by a couple of savvy freshmen who were putting up impressive numbers through the first part of the season. But Titans coach Anna Bressinck had something in mind to keep them in check.
“The plan was to put some of our older players on them to bother them, get on them early and keep them uncomfortable,” says Bressinck.
Rio Crabtree and Molly Miller were handed the task and while it was working in the first quarter with Ouray held to four points total and the Titans dominating the boards, the other end of the court proved troublesome for Crested Butte as their only points came from a short jumper by Ella Davis.
Lola Wright looked to get the Titans going opening the second quarter with a three-point play but things still looked a bit hectic, so Bressinck called on her team for a little composure.
“We were rebounding well and playing solid defensively, but I was trying to get them to slow the game down,” says Bressinck. “We tend to panic in front of our hometown crowd.”
The shift worked for the Titans as both Miller and Crabtree scored to put the Titans on top and Miller came across the lane for a massive block, but the Trojans responded to every basket the Titans scored to take a one-point lead into halftime.
Then things shifted for good. While Ouray scored the first basket of the third quarter, that would be their last basket of the third quarter as the Titans went on an 11-1 run. Miller found a seam to the hoop to score, Wright picked off a pass and drove the length of the floor to score, Cecilia Naughton joined in the offense to drop in a bucket and then Wright slipped a pass to Nora Thomes for a euro-step layup and two more Titan points and a 19-14 lead. Miller would then close the third quarter scoring three more points and Crested Butte was out front comfortably 22-14.
“We came out with a pop we didn’t have in the first half,” says Bressinck. “We had them where we wanted them.”
“Miller time” then continued in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter. While Ouray did manage to get back to scoring a couple of points, Miller was on a roll as the Titans continued to push the pace. A couple of layups and a 12-foot jumper from Miller then had the Titans out front 30-17 with three minutes left and Bressinck turned to her bench for them to finish the game.
“Molly got hot and we were locked in and dialed in on defense,” says Bressinck. “We were able to get subs in and I told them to show us what you got.”
The subs did their jobs on defense and continued to push the pace up and down the court keeping the Trojans off balance to seal the 30-20 Titans win. Miller finished with 16 points, 13 in the second half alone while Wright scored five and Davis dominated the boards all game long.
“We settled into ourselves a bit,” says Bressinck. “We’re starting to realize we’re a second half team.”
The Titans head into the holidays and look to remain on track during workouts over the break. While Xs and Os are always part of the plan, Bressinck has something else in mind for practices.
“We still got a lot of little things and big things to work on,” says Bressinck. “My main goal this season is that they work together and I’m starting to see that so we will continue to work on chemistry. Just playing basketball together and understanding each other.”
