The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Finish regular season with a couple wins
By Than Acuff
It’s go time for the Crested Butte Titans boys’ basketball team as they finished the regular season 11-9 and enter the District tournament looking to push through to the Regional tournament, aka the 2A state tournament.
After a long weather-related road trip to Leadville on Tuesday, February 18, the Titans took the floor to face the Lake County Panthers and pushed the Panthers to the brink before falling 64-58.
A bus ride meant to take two and a half hours, ended up taking four and a half hours with no stop for food due to weather and while the Titans matched Leadville point for point in the first quarter, the Panthers built a 35-14 lead by halftime.
“That bus ride was not great for the legs,” says head coach Mike Bacani.
Leadville came out of halftime to outscore the Titans 16-10 in the third quarter to take a 17-point lead into the fourth quarter. The Titans then slowly but surely clawed their way back into the game in Lake County’s house. Adin Kurak got it going driving through the lane for a bucket, four quick passes later set up Luke Jennings in the paint and when Eli Hulm hit a three-pointer midway through the fourth, they had cut the Panthers’ lead to single digits.
Bridger Flores knocked down a three-pointer and stripped a Lake County player of the ball and scored with 43 seconds left. Crested Butte was within five points. Pairing a press with intentional fouls, the Titans looked to close out their comeback, but Lake County hit the needed free throws as Crested Butte’s shots missed the mark for the Panthers to escape with a 64-58 win. Kurak scored 26 points, Flores 12 while Hulm and Jennings dropped in eight and seven points respectively.
“Our defense got a little better and we had a good crew on the floor in the fourth quarter,” says Bacani. “We just couldn’t get over the hump.”
Crested Butte returned to the road on Friday, February 21 to play the Sargent Farmers and found themselves in another tight battle with defense the name of the game.
While the Farmers did pose a challenge through the first quarter, a three-point play and three-pointers from Owen Pugh and Hulm to open the second quarter set the Titans on track. They continued their momentum through the second quarter to pull ahead 23-13 by halftime and were up 27-15 early in the third quarter when things started slipping away for Crested Butte.
Sargent’s notoriously tight defense did their job at one end of the court and while the Titans defense was equally strong, the Farmers pulled within three points with two minutes left in front of their home crowd.
“We got too comfortable in the third quarter,” says Bacani. “Sure enough, the momentum was on Sargent’s side.”
The Farmers looked to press down the stretch, but the Titans broke it to set up Pugh for an easy basket and the Farmer’s last-ditch efforts to finish their comeback fell short and Crested Butte sealed the 34-31 win. Kurak led with 16 points with Hulm scoring nine.
“We didn’t so much win that game as much as we held them off,” says Bacani. “But you never complain about a victory.”
The Titans finally got a respite from the grind on Saturday, February 22 as they headed to Fairplay to cruise to a 57-22 win over the South Park Burros. Kurak and Hulm led the scoring again with additional players dropping in points closing the regular season with a total team win.
The Titans now head into the post season and have three games in the District tournament where they face Custer County in the first round with the second round on Thursday, February 27 and the final round in Monte Vista on Saturday, March 1. If all goes well, the Titans will secure one of the top 32 spots in the state to keep their post season going the following week.
“I feel like we’ve got a grasp on who we are offensively and defensively and now are just working on the small things to try and generate an extra three to five points each half,” says Bacani. “We’re in a good place to compete this week.”
