The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Winning streak stopped at three
By Than Acuff
The Crested Butte Titans girls’ basketball team headed into the holiday break on a three-game winning streak but dropped the first two games following the break losing to Buena Vista on Friday, January 9 and then Sanford on Saturday, January 10.
The holiday break can do that to teams, stalling them in their tracks just as they were building momentum, but Crested Butte maintained workouts over the break to continue their efforts to improve with a tough stretch of the schedule ahead.
“We had a really good group out and it was nice to see the commitment,” says coach Anna Bressinck. “We used the practices to work on chemistry, stay in the groove and work on our shooting.”
The Titans got another boost as Calla Fenlon joined the team to bring an additional scoring threat to the floor. Unfortunately, the first hill proved too steep to climb as the Buena Vista Demons are at the top of their 3A/4A league and the Sanford Mustangs are the top team in Crested Butte’s league and one of the top 2A programs in the state.
“We knew we were going to have a tough weekend so the prep for us was offense,” says Bressinck.
The Demons opened the game with an oppressive full court press and while the Titans managed to generate chances off of their press break, they missed a couple of easy baskets their first two chances but ultimately connected as Molly Miller dished to Lola Wright for a bucket in the paint.
The Demons continued to generate points off the press and despite the efforts of Cecilia Naughton to defend under the basket, Buena Vista continued to find success. The Titans were dealt an early blow as Miller, their best asset in a press break, got into early foul trouble and the Demons closed the first quarter up 18-3.
“Having Molly in foul trouble didn’t help,” says Bressinck. “But truth be told, our energy just wasn’t there in the first quarter. I told them we’ve got to lock it up and toughen up.”
The Titans opened the second quarter and did just that and it paid off some as Fenlon drained a three-pointer and Hadley Blaisdell sank an eight-foot jumper while the Titans defense held the Demons to just five points the entire quarter.
“They went out and put it together,” says Bressinck. “They won the second quarter and showed what they’re capable of.”
Buena Vista returned to their heavy press and scoring ways in the third quarter to outscore the Titans 21-6 with the Titans points coming from Wright and Fenlon while Miller’s time was still limited due to foul trouble. Buena Vista would eventually finish off Crested Butte 46-22.
“They scored 10 points in the first three minutes of the third quarter and that just killed our momentum,” says Bressinck. “In the end, we just didn’t match up well with them.”
The Titans then hit the road for their toughest challenge of the season, the Sanford Mustangs and, somehow, the Titans managed to shake off their effort against Buena Vista to bring the heat in the first half against Sanford with a clear message and a clear plan.
“I just told them, we’ve got nothing to lose, play loose, play free, play tough and play together,” says Bressinck. “We decided we would pack the paint and force them to shoot three-pointers.”
Remarkably, the typically fluid shooters of Sanford were a bit out of synch as they struggled to hit shots, and the Titans were down just 11-6 at halftime.
“We leveled up in that first half,” says Bressinck. “We should have been leading. We were getting the looks, just missed shots we needed to make.”
The Mustangs would eventually find their groove from the perimeter and pull away for the 43-8 win, but it wasn’t a total loss for the Titans.
“We wanted to keep them to 40 points, and we kept them to 43,” says Bressinck. “The story is the same though. We’ve got to score points when we get the opportunity.”
The Titans return to the road to face Caprock Academy in Grand Junction on Saturday, January 17.
“It’s a winnable game,” says Bressinck. “We’re going to double down on what we’re good at, defense, and turn defense into offense. We’re almost there but we have to level up across the board. We’ve got to take that next step.”
