The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Home game this Friday, December 20 at 4 p.m.
By Than Acuff
After a tough start to the season, a week of concentrated workouts and preparations bore fruit for the Crested Butte Titans boys’ basketball team as they rattled off back-to-back wins in Grand Junction Friday and Saturday, December 13-14.
“Just having a week to work on our stuff like offensive sets and offensive plays, made a big difference,” says coach Mike Bacani.
The Titans opened the two-day road trip Friday against the Soroco Rams, a 1A team in the midst of a rebuild. The Titans used the game to continue their efforts in practices that week but in a game time situation.
Crested Butte opened the game building a 19-5 lead in the first quarter and kept pressing on the gas while getting players varsity minutes. While the bench was in heavy use, the Titans showed no signs of slowing down going up 40-13 by halftime and then opened the third quarter with an 18-0 run to eventually roll to a 64-23 win. Bridger Flores led the Titans with 17 points, Adin Kurak scored 12 and Isaac Jennings dropped in nine points.
“We kind of knew what to expect so it gave us an opportunity to give a lot of kids varsity minutes and experiment with different line ups,” says Bacani.
It also allowed Bacani the chance to rest a lot of his starters as they knew they had a tough game the next day against the Vail Christian Saints.
Kurak led the offense for Crested Butte through the first three quarters of the game. He started it all off early scoring 13 points in the first quarter alone as the Titans edged out a four-point lead heading into the second quarter.
While a tight game was in the works, Bacani was still able to get players in off the bench at the end of the first quarter and opening the second quarter and they provided key minutes for the team with no noticeable drop in the Titans’ play.
Crested Butte built on their lead with a 9-0 run thanks to a couple of three-pointers from Kurak and a solo bomb from Eli Hulm. The Saints responded with a three-pointer and a three-point play but with Luke Jennings battling for rebounds, Tyus Fischer finishing off his own three-point play and Flores slipping through the Saints defense for a layup, Crested Butte was out front 33-24 at halftime.
“Luke got any rebound that hit his hands,” says Bacani. “They were longer, but we were stronger.”
Crested Butte remained on point outworking the Saints in the third quarter to outscore them 17-6 to start the second half. Kurak continued to score inside and out, and Flores provided additional buckets for the Titans and with their defense continuing to handcuff Vail Christian, Crested Butte had a 51-39 lead at the start of the fourth quarter.
“We’ve developed our offense sets to isolate Adin when he has the hot hand,” says Bacani. “We spread out our offense to avoid any possible double teams on him.”
It took a while, but Vail Christian eventually adjusted switching to a box-in-one defense to slow Kurak down. The move proved fortuitous as Vail Christian cut the Titans’ lead down to six points but two big three-pointers from Hulm and another three-point play by Fischer was just what the Titans needed to stem the tide on the Saints’ comeback.
Flores and Fischer then knocked down three free throws down the stretch and the Titans emerged with a 67-59 win. Kurak finished the game with 36 points with Hulm scoring 11.
“It was a very good team effort down the stretch,” says Bacani. “Everything we practiced all week kicked in against Vail Christian.”
The Titans return to the road this week to face the Ouray Trojans for their final game before the Christmas break.
“They’re a very competitive, very fast team with shooters,” says Bacani. “We definitely need to go in there and execute and take care of business.”
