Boys’ basketball wins two of three over past week

Final home game of season Friday at 7 p.m.

By Than Acuff

The Crested Butte Titans boys’ basketball team was on point and prepared for its three-game stretch of games last week starting with Telluride on the road last Tuesday and rolling into home games against Ridgway and Custer County Friday and Saturday, February 7-8. Unfortunately, they fell short of their goal for the week knocking off both Telluride and Ridgway but falling to Custer County.

“This was a stretch we had circled,” says head coach Mike Bacani. “Obviously the goal was to go 3-0, but 2-1 is not bad.”

The Titans jumped out to an early 11-0 lead on the Telluride Miners in the first quarter and held onto their 11-point lead through the second quarter to go into halftime up 22-11.

“That was the product of us working on our defensive rotations,” says Bacani.

The Miners then switched their plan and opened the third quarter with an 8-0 run but a timeout and quick adjustment defensively by the Titans quashed the Miners’ comeback almost immediately as they responded with a 10-0 run to rebuild their lead. Crested Butte continued to maintain their lead for the remainder of the second half to leave Telluride with a 51-41 win. Adin Kurak led the team with 19 points while Eli Hulm scored 12, including a couple big three-pointers in the second half.

“They tried to shoot their way back into the game,” says Bacani. “We just kept our lead in the 10 to 11-point range. Other than the first minutes of the third quarter, it was one of the more complete defensive outings we’d had this year.”

Crested Butte then returned to host the Ridgway Demons for Senior Night on Friday and built a 14-10 lead in the first quarter paced by three-pointers from both Kurak and Hulm. The Demons remained in the hunt though and while the Titans had the momentum, Ridgway managed to score when needed and held the Titans to a tenuous five-point lead going into halftime.

Crested Butte then made their move at both ends of the court in the third quarter as Kurak remained hot from three-point range and Owen Pugh set the tone for the team defensively with Tyus Fisher chasing down rebounds to deny the Demons any second chances as the Titans built a 42-30 lead.

“Defensively Owen is as good as anyone we have, and Tyus seems to get a lot of rebounds on the weakside, he just has good instincts,” says Bacani.

The Titans then ramped up the pace in the fourth quarter to maintain their advantage with a couple key baskets coming from Bridger Flores to close out Senior Night with a 56-42 win. Kurak finished the game with 37 points.

“That was the first time in four games someone didn’t play a box-in-one on Adin,” says Bacani. “Adin’s offensive skills were on full display.”

The final piece of the three-game puzzle was the Custer County Bobcats on Saturday. This was a game Bacani knew would be tough as they came into Crested Butte ranked higher than the Titans and had more to offer than both Ridgway and Telluride.

“Custer, by far, was the most athletic of the three,” says Bacani.

The Titans opened the game firing on all pistons crashing the boards, scoring inside and out and shutting Custer County down defensively to take a 9-0 lead. The Bobcats shook off their bus legs to finish the first quarter with an 8-0 run and then started pressing the Titans and looking inside to use their height advantage to pull ahead 15-11. While Crested Butte managed to score off their press break, Custer County found success shooting from the perimeter as well and were up 23-17 late in the half. Luke Jennings crashed the offensive boards to fight off the height and score for some light at the end of what was a growing tunnel, but the Bobcats responded with a three-pointer to close the first half up 26-19.

 “We started taking the first available shot instead of making that extra pass and taking the best available shot,” says Bacani.

The Titans regained their composure during the break and opened the third quarter with an 8-0 run as Hulm and Kurak knocked down three-pointers and Flores hit two free throws. But Custer County showed their resilience to recover with a run of their own to close the quarter and rebuild a seven-point lead.

“We kind of gave up all the good work we had done but we had the confidence we could come back again,” says Bacani.

Jennings continued his battles in the paint to score amongst the trees and, thanks to the effort of Fisher on the offensive boards, stepped outside to hit a three-pointer. With a momentum swing in the making, Custer County called another timeout and came back onto the court with one plan in mind, kill the clock.

A three-point play and another three-pointer from Kurak kept the Titans in the hunt and were then forced to foul to stop the clock with just under two minutes left in the game. Custer missed in their subsequent free throw attempts but managed to get the rebounds and continue to kill the clock.

“That was truly the crusher,” says Bacani. “Not securing those rebounds was a gut punch.”

Custer County then shot 8-for-8 from the line down the stretch to hand the Titans a 55-46 loss. Kurak finished with 24 points while Custer County’s top scorer finished with 25. But the Bobcats also had two others score in double digits while the Titans had none.

“I thought we played well, Custer County was just a better team on that day,” says Bacani.

Crested Butte now has another tough three-game stretch as they face Gunnison, Lake County and Cotopaxi this week with Crested Butte’s final home game of the regular season Friday, February 14 at 7 p.m. While the goal is to win out, Bacani understands the Titans need to bring their best game, every game, for all four quarters.

“Anything is possible,” says Bacani. “If we take our foot off the gas or don’t play to our ceiling, we allow other teams to go on runs.”