The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“Once we started looking down low, things started looking better”
By Than Acuff
The Crested Butte Titans girls’ basketball team fell to the Gunnison Cowboys on Wednesday, February 11, 28-18, but they looked much better than the first time they played them two weeks prior.
“Maybe it was because it was Senior Night, but we were a totally different team,” says coach Anna Bressinck. “The first time we played them we just didn’t show up.”
Despite the loss, the Titans carried their momentum into their next game the very next day as they rolled to a 37-15 win over Lake County.
Gunnison was going to be tough as they bring massive amounts of ball pressure but, the Titans seemed to manage it well to stay in touch early with Gunnison. It also didn’t hurt that the Titans defense was on point including an opening block by Ainsley Stewart.
“We’ve been working on that all year, handling the pressure,” says Bressinck. “And I told them at the start of the game to play defense like their lives depended on it.”
The Cowboys opened the second quarter with a three-pointer to take a 12-4 lead and could easily have pulled away but the Titans adjusted accordingly and paced by two blocks and baskets inside from Lola Wright with additional points from Rio Crabtree, Ella Davis and Molly Miller, Crested Butte had pulled to within three points by halftime.
“They just locked back in, and the focus was to get the ball down low,” says Bressinck. “Once we started looking down low, things started looking better.”
The second half proved to be a defensive showdown and while Crested Butte held Gunnison to nine points the entire half, Gunnison held the Titans to just two points to finish off Crested Butte 28-18. Miller and Wright led the Titans with six points each, Wright finished with four blocks and Davis racked up double-digit rebounds.
“The key to our defense was Ella Davis, she was just cleaning up the boards, she turned it on in the third quarter,” says Bressinck. “We were getting stops but we needed to turn that into points.”
Crested Butte returned to their home court the next day to host Lake County somewhat depleted. Not only were they missing two starters and Miller was nursing an ankle injury, but Bressinck had to watch from home suffering from the illness running through the school.
“We were dinged up for sure, but we know what we had to do,” says Bressinck.
Wright remained right in the paint as she knocked down six points in the first half. Kalyn Buckel tacked on a steal for a layup, Cecilia Naughton scored inside and Miller and Davis each scored as well for a 14-5 lead at halftime.
After a somewhat quiet third quarter, Crested Butte then turned it up in the fourth to outscore Lake County 19-6. Miller opened the fourth scoring the Titans’ first eight points and Wright dropped in six more as the Titans ran away with a 37-15 win. Miller led the Titans with 18 points and Wright scored 12.
“It was a sloppy game but I’m proud of them for staying calm in the chaos,” says Bressinck. “It was a testament to our reserve players and the work they’ve put in all year.”
Crested Butte finishes the regular season at home with a game against Sargent on Friday, February 20 at 5:30 p.m. and then remain at home to host South Park on Saturday at 11:30 a.m.
“Sargent’s ranked fifth in the state so that’s going to be a tough game but we’re going to go out there and fight,” says Bressinck. “We will be missing seniors Rio and Molly for the game against South Park so the message for that game is, this is what the future is going to look like.”
