The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Illness hampers team over past week
By Than Acuff
It’s always just a matter of time when winter sports fall prey to illnesses and that time came for the Crested Butte Titans boys’ basketball team during a three-game stretch last week. They started it off on Tuesday, February 3 already feeling the effects but managed to grind their way to a 46-37 win over the Telluride Miners thanks in large part to a 25-point effort from Owen Pugh.
“We’ve been working with Owen a lot and he has really found his groove,” says head coach Mike Bacani.
Three key players had to sit out the practice on Monday prior to the Telluride game with illness and Bacani could see the effects immediately from the opening tipoff.
“It showed in the game,” says Bacani. “We were a step slow on defense and gave up a little more than we wanted to.”
A lay up through traffic for John Mitchell and five points from Pugh carried the Titans offense through the first quarter and Pugh knocked down two more buckets to open the second quarter to keep the game tied 11-11. Pugh continued his scoring ways throughout the second quarter and Isaac Jennings dropped in a layup as well to help the Titans take a three-point lead into halftime.
The Titans came out of the break with a concerted defensive effort and with Pugh still scoring and Jennings and Tyus Fischer each draining three-pointers, Crested Butte was out front 33-25 heading into the fourth quarter.
“We always use halftime to refocus our defense and came out defending better in the third quarter,” says Bacani.
A three-pointer by Telluride to start the fourth quarter had them as close as they would ever be to the Titans as Crested Butte responded with a 6-0 run and maintained their lead to the final buzzer for the win.
“We just kept them at arm’s length the rest of the game,” says Bacani.
Things got worse the next two days for the Titans as they couldn’t even manage five-on-five efforts during practices to prepare for the Ridgway Demons due to the continued onset of illness throughout the team. That setback eventually reared its ugly head against Ridgway on Friday, February 6 as the Titans fell 54-52.
“We were at the peak of our illness against Ridgway,” says Bacani.
The Titans started off strong racking up 17 points paced by 12 points from Fischer, but the Demons scored 12 to keep the Titans well within reach. Crested Butte still managed to hold their lead through the second and third quarter but as the game wore on, the Titans started to wear out.
The Demons opened the fourth quarter with a 9-2 run to pull ahead 46-44 and while Crested Butte continued to score, they couldn’t get the necessary stops on defense to put the Demons away and Ridgway eventually eked out a 54-52 win. Fischer led the Titans with 20 points while Pugh scored 13.
“Offensively we were fine, we just couldn’t find that lockdown defense we’d been playing the last couple of weeks,” says Bacani. “We hadn’t given up 50 points in a while.”
Crested Butte remained on the road the next day to take on the Custer County Bobcats and their scorer ranked third in the state in 2A.
Crested Butte got back to what they do best, defense holding the Bobcats to 13 points to close the first half tied 13-13.
“The first half could not have gone any better for us,” says Bacani. “Our defense was outstanding.”
Things continued to work in Crested Butte’s favor until a couple random Bobcat players started knocking down baskets to spark an 8-0 run to pull ahead 34-19. The Titans battled back to cut Custer County’s lead down to six points, but the Bobcats held off the Titans for a 42-36 win.
“It was looking bleak, but the boys didn’t blink,” says Bacani. “The loss to Ridgway felt disheartening but the loss at Custer County felt different. They faced adversity and responded with toughness. We just ran out of time in the end.”
Crested Butte closes the regular season with four games at home the next two weeks including hosting Lake County on Thursday, February 12 at 7 p.m.
“We have a good opportunity to get better over the next four games heading into the post season,” says Bacani.
