The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
First home game of the season this Friday
by Than Acuff
While wins have eluded the Crested Butte Titans girls basketball team the past several years, it’s not all doom and gloom despite losing their first two games of the season this year.
The Titans headed to Grand Junction last weekend for their first two games of the season and preparations for the opening weekend were a little erratic, as coach Vaden Holmes balanced working with her veteran players as well as bringing new players into the fold.
“It was overwhelming a little,” says Holmes. “I have a lot of girls who haven’t really played before and some things we went into were probably too much for them.”
Furthermore, Holmes’ roster heading into the weekend was cut short as she typically has 18 players, but only 12 could make the trip.
“We were missing players and just didn’t have camaraderie and that messed up the dynamic going into the games,” says Holmes.
That played out in the opening half of the Titans’ first game of the season as they managed just one point in the entire first half of their game against Caprock Academy.
“We did have some shots but they just weren’t falling and there were some nerves and newness to the game,” says Holmes. “I didn’t have all of my girls and so had two girls starting who hadn’t played in two years.”
Then, the switch came on for the Titan girls, as they outscored Caprock 16-4 in the third quarter. Siena and Sophia Truex led the charge with a series of breakaway baskets and the rest of the team fed off of their energy and effort to go from down 13 points to pull back within four points heading into the fourth quarter.
“We had a ‘come to Jesus’ moment at halftime,” says Holmes. “It just took us that long to get to a point where we were actually playing.”
Ultimately though, Caprock stemmed the Titan tide and found some seams in their defense to rebuild their lead, eventually pulling away for the 30-23 win.
“It was a matter of discipline and getting back on defense on transitions,” explains Holmes. “We were leaving holes in our defense and they got cheap, easy buckets.”
Plateau Valley was a different beast all together. The Titans did what they could against such a powerful opponent and, as always, fought all the way to the end, but missing players and discipline proved the difference in the game as Crested Butte fell 60-15.
“They played a different style than Caprock and were just more disciplined than we were,” says Holmes. “They just started to pull away and we lost our integrity and couldn’t keep up.”
Holmes admits she was disappointed with the results but did see a silver lining.
“In comparison to this time last year, our play was substantially better,” says Holmes.
The Titans will play their first home game of the season on Friday, December 7 when they host Ouray. Tip-off is at 5:30 p.m.
“I think we match up pretty well with them,” says Holmes.
