The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“It was a good game, but not a great game, for us”
by Than Acuff
Heading into the weekend, the Crested Butte Titans girls basketball team was looking forward to a couple of more tough showdowns but nothing like what they had been through the previous weekend. They had the benefit of hosting South Park on Friday, January 18 and were then going on the road to face the Center Vikings the next day. Both teams are tough and would be hard to beat, but still offered a chance for the Titans to turn things around, even a little bit.
The week leading up, coach Vaden Holmes continued doing what she has been all season with her team: getting them to push the pace and continue working on shooting.
“We did a lot of conditioning, fast-paced drills to step up our pace of game and lots of shooting, of course,” says Holmes.
And while the Titans have yet to notch a win this season, Holmes has seen growth over the course of the workouts that she hopes will play out at some point in the future.
“We definitely push the ball more and have better movement in transition,” says Holmes.
Holmes hoped to take that into Friday’s game against South Park but a storm system in Colorado forced South Park to cancel, leaving the Titans all dressed up with no game to play.
“We ended up having a practice instead and we didn’t look that great,” admits Holmes.
The Titans had to regroup and load the bus the next day bound for Center, a team that, while not as good as most opponents, still cause issues for Crested Butte.
“I knew they had some height and a lot of post-play and we don’t have the means to play against that,” explains Holmes. “I just wanted the girls to push the pace to try to keep Center from setting up their post.”
While the game started off well for the Titans, it soon got away from them as they fell behind 15-4 in the first quarter and were down 30-10 at halftime.
“We started strong but lost momentum pretty quickly,” says Holmes. “We just had too many mistakes and couldn’t dig ourselves out of the hole.”
The Titans looked to gain some ground in the third quarter though, and while a win was out of reach, the second half still provided an opportunity for continued improvement. The Titans knocked down seven points in the third quarter but fatigue settled in and they knocked down just one basket in the fourth quarter, losing 52-17. Sophia Truex led the Titans with six points.
“We had lots of mistakes, lots of tired passes,” says Holmes. “We just didn’t look like ourselves. It was a good game, but not a great game, for us.”
Crested Butte returns to the road to face a tall Cotopaxi Pirates team on Friday, January 25, and then will return home to host the Sargent Farmers, another league powerhouse, on Saturday, January 26. Tip-off is at 2:30 p.m.
“I’m just looking for some good basketball,” says Holmes, “see the things we’ve been working on and come out of the games feeling good about it.”
