Girls hoops runs into brick wall in league play

Hope to secure win this weekend

by Than Acuff

Both Del Norte and Sanford are currently in a battle for league supremacy, as well as a shot at post-season success. The Crested Butte Titans girls basketball team, on the other hand, is on a different path—one that involves merely improving upon their last game and moving forward.

Having played both Del Norte and Sanford previously this season, the Crested Butte girls’ second games were mostly about improving upon those first games.

“It was about playing them better, knowing what we had been working on in practice and setting out to accomplish that,” says coach Vaden Holmes.

For about the first two minutes, the Titans were on that path as the Titans’ defense was in place but they repeatedly gave the ball back to Del Norte and found themselves scrambling to recover.

Del Norte jumped out to a 19-3 lead with the lone highlights for Crested Butte coming from Alex Downey with a block and a three-pointer by Sophia Truex. The Titans followed with two more shot blocks in a row only to have Del Norte gather the loose ball and score again as they closed the first quarter up 25-3.

Sophia knocked down a 12-foot jumper and sister Siena Truex drained a three-pointer in the second quarter and the Titans defense looked better but not nearly good enough to slow down Del Norte as Crested Butte was down 62-8 midway through the third quarter.

But, true to their form all season long, the Titans kept playing to the final second despite the 84-13 final score. While a loss is always disappointing, Holmes was more disappointed with what she saw from her team that evening.

“That was a pretty rough game, worst we’d played all season,” says Holmes. “A lot of the defenses and presses that we have worked on, we didn’t do. We weren’t really executing our plan. I know the girls are capable of a lot more and it’s disappointing when we didn’t show that.”

The Titans then traveled to Sanford on Saturday, February 2 and brought a much better game to the floor. While they still lost 53-5, Holmes felt her team actually showed up focused and ready to play.

“Our biggest goal was to show up and play better than we did on Tuesday,” says Holmes. “We were able to slow them down better and our transitions on defense were better.”

The Titans have two games this weekend as they head to Custer County on Friday, February 8 and then host Center on Saturday, February 9. The games start at 1 p.m.

“I think they’re winnable, if we show up and are ready,” says Holmes.