The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Post season starts this week
By Than Acuff
After an explosive start for the Crested Butte Titans boys’ basketball team against the Sargent Farmers, the Farmers pulled back into the game until the Titans shut the door to take down the Farmers 46-36 on Friday, February 20 in their final game of the regular season.
It may have been one of the best starts for the Titans as they jumped out to a 15-1 lead in the first quarter. The Titans opened the game with patience on offense and a stifling defense with baskets coming from Blake Bacani, Tyus Fisher and Owen Pugh.
“We watched film of our defense and really worked on defense the whole week leading up to the game,” says head coach Mike Bacani. “We didn’t work much on offense so during pregame we talked about patience on offense. Taking care of the ball and hunting for shots.”
Crested Butte continued to pour it on in the second quarter as John Mitchell pulled down an offensive rebound and scored. Fisher then scored the next five Titan points for a 23-5 lead with three minutes left in the first half. Pugh tacked on a three-pointer down the stretch and the Titans took a 26-10 lead into halftime.
“They recognize at this point in the season what needs to happen, and they executed that,” says Bacani.
Sargent upped their defensive pressure to open the second half slowing down the Titans offense while finding their shot from the perimeter. The two teams traded buckets, but Fisher scored inside, and Beck Kurak drained a three-pointer in the waning moments to keep the Farmers at arm’s length for a 36-20 Titans’ lead.
Things then got a little tense in the fourth quarter as the Farmers switched to a full court press but a key bucket from Bacani and a three-pointer from Isaac Jennings kept the Titans out front comfortably midway through the fourth quarter.
“I was happy with how we handled the press,” says Bacani.
Sargent then got hot from three-point range knocking down four three-pointers in a span of two and half minutes pulling to within seven points of the Titans with just over a minute left in the game.
“We had changed our defense and went to a zone to practice it, and it was evident we need to work on that more,” says Bacani. “We were just out of position a little bit and they got hot.”
Crested Butte went back to their man-to-man to stop Sargent and the Farmers were then forced to foul the Titans to stop the clock and Fisher knocked down three of four free throws down the stretch and the Titans defense did the rest to seal the 46-36 win. Fisher led the Titans with 17 points while Pugh and Bacani each scored seven.
The Titans now head into the league tournament the seventh seed of 10 teams and will face the second seeded Sierra Grande Panthers on the road. The two teams have common opponents winning and losing those common opponent games by similar amounts.
“It should be a fun game and a nice challenge for our boys,” says Bacani.
The Titans then play two more games in the league tournament on Thursday, February 26 and Saturday, February 28 looking to improve their state 2A ranking and punch their ticket to regionals. They sit ranked 33rd in the state with the top 32 teams moving onto the regional portion of the state tournament.
“Winning two of three of these games would benefit us greatly,” says Bacani.
