The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Home game Friday, January 19 at 6 p.m.
By Than Acuff
With players running in all sorts of different directions during the holidays, Crested Butte Titans girls’ basketball coach Anna Bressnick was limited to hosting just two open gyms during the break, and she was just fine with that.
“I told them, take a break, rest up and have some fun,” says Bressnick.
But she did tell them that when they returned to workouts on Monday, January 8, it would be “go” time.
“I told them I wanted to see intensity and focus starting that first practice back,” says Bressnick. “From now until the first of March, we’re all gas no brakes.”
Following three days of workouts, the Titans hit the road to face the Creede Miners on Thursday, January 11, and the opening quarter showed that the Titans had yet to truly shake off the rust and were tied with Creede 6-6. They started waking up in the second quarter and while Crested Butte struggled to shut down Creede’s top player, the Titans started getting back into game mentality to score 12 points in the second quarter for an 18-16 lead by halftime.
“We definitely settled in come the second quarter,” says Bressnick. “We still weren’t running our offense well.”
When the team gathered for some halftime words from coach Bressnick, she sat back and left them with the task of figuring things out.
“I just looked at them and said, ‘what’s the problem?’,” says Bressnick. “The leaders started chirping up and talking it out and got it down to three things they needed to do. I was proud of them. They figured it out together and they came out in the third quarter and did those three things.”
With defense tightening up to shut down Creede’s top scorer and the Titans offense playing more patient, shots started to fall and Crested Butte scored 20 points in the third quarter paced by a series of three-pointers from Lexi Pickering and the effort of Annie Collins under the basket to take a 38-26 lead into the fourth quarter.
“We came out on fire in the third quarter,” says Bressnick.
With the game well in hand at this point, Bressnick used the opportunity to get more players more varsity experience and Crested Butte outscored the Miners 10-6 down the stretch to seal the 48-32 win. Pickering led Crested Butte with 13 points, Molly Miller scored 12 and Calla Fenlon was back from injury to score 10 points.
The Titans actually stay at home for a stretch now. Their last home game was December 1, but they have their next three games at home including opening league play against the Center Vikings on Friday, January 19 at 6 p.m.
“We’re excited to be back and play at home and I think everyone’s in the right mindset, it’s ‘go’ time,” says Bressnick.
