The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“It comes down to mental toughness”
By Than Acuff
While it was easier, it certainly wasn’t easy as the Crested Butte Titans girls’ basketball team fought its way to two wins in Grand Junction last weekend. The Titans opened the season against two of the toughest opponents they’re going to face all year falling in both contests. But a week of practices and slightly more appropriate opponents set the stage for the Titans’ success.
“We needed four uninterrupted days of getting into our stuff and getting after it,” says coach Anna Bressnick. “We focused on defensive positioning, driving and kicking out and shooting and all of those things were remarkably better.”
They started it all off against the Soroco Rams on Friday, December 13 and immediately jumped out to an 8-3 lead in the first quarter. But the Rams are no slouches and bring heavy pressure to the ball and as the second quarter wore on, Soroco held Crested Butte close to go into halftime down by just four.
“I told them before the game that Soroco likes to pressure the ball so be prepared, they make you work for it,” says Bressnick.
The Titans never crumbled under the pressure though and while they maintained their lead through the third quarter, the Rams would not go away and tied it up before an inbounds pass from Grace Bogard to Molly Miller set up the final bucket of the third quarter and a 19-17 lead with one quarter left to play.
“It stayed close, closer than I wanted it to be,” says Bressnick.
Soroco would then take the lead in the fourth quarter and were up 24-21 with less than two minutes left to play. At which point Miller went into overdrive for the Titans.
Miller hit two free throws and then a steal by Bogard set up Miller for a layup and subsequent foul. Miller hit the free throw for the three-point play and the Titans were back on top 26-25 with 27 seconds left to play. Miller would then score four more points down the stretch to help seal the 30-25 win. Miller finished the game with 21 points.
“She scored the last 12 points of the game,” says Bressnick. “She was either going to get a bucket or get fouled. She willed us there.”
Crested Butte returned to the floor on Saturday, December 14 to face the Vail Christian Saints opening this game quite a bit differently as they gave up six quick points to the Saints forcing Bressnick to call a timeout.
“Road games and staying overnight in a hotel is tough,” says Bressnick. “You never know what mentality they’re going to show up with. The message I gave them was simple. Take a deep breath and go out and play the way we know how.”
The Titans came out of the break a bit more focused on their game plan outscoring the Saints 6-2 to pull within four points by the end of the quarter.
