Titan girls suffering at the hands of top-flight league

Toughest stretch of schedule

There really is no way to sugarcoat the Crested Butte Titan girls’ 51-4 loss to Sargent last Wednesday. Granted, Sargent is the top team in the Southern Peaks league and the Southern Peaks league is one of the top 2A leagues in the state.
Also, at least they didn’t lose 161-2 like one girls’ high school team in California did this past weekend.
But, it was brutal and was the third lopsided loss the Titan girls suffered over a three-game stretch the past 10 days.
“There’s a very talented group of teams at the top of the league,” says coach Mike Moran.
But, and there’s always a but, those three losses came at the hands of the top three teams in the league and the Titan girls recovered from the successive thumpings to put together two solid efforts Friday and Saturday, including a four-quarter battle against Cripple Creek.
The girls headed to Telluride on Friday, January 16 to take on the Miners in a much-anticipated ski town showdown. While every team in the Titans’ league has a plethora of talent to pick from, with girls basketball the only option for their athletes in the winter, Telluride and Crested Butte have similar challenges to their programs. Suffice it to say, basketball, let alone girls basketball, is far from the focus of winter activities for young athletes in the two ski towns, with alpine skiing, Nordic skiing and hockey splitting up the athlete pie.
But, and like I said there’s always a but, the Titans team headed into Telluride missing two key starters to injuries and lost another one during the game.
“We were physically beat up and emotionally taxed,” says Moran.
Nevertheless, the mix of starters and bench players, some of whom were playing in new positions, put up a fight through the first half, down just 17-13. As the game wore on though, the Titans wore down and Telluride’s top player spelled the 34-17 demise of the Titans.
“We hung in there for a while but their one girl basically beat us down there,” says Moran.
The team then boarded back on the bus the following morning to face Cripple Creek on Saturday, January 17. With three starters missing due to injuries, pure determination kept the Titans in the game. Cripple Creek flirted with taking over for good, building a 16-10 lead but the Titans remained in the hunt and cut the lead down to one with seven seconds left. They pushed the ball up court and had an inbounds play under Cripple Creek’s basket with one second left. Moran put the play in place and the girls ran it flawlessly but the potential game-winning shot bounced off the rim and out, and the Titans fell 23-22.
“It was a good game and we did some good things down the stretch,” says Moran. “It was exciting to have a chance to win.”
Erika Bremer and Courtney Kopf led the Titans with six points each and while the game was close, the big difference came with the Titans’ struggles shooting, as they finished missing 11 free throws.
“We could have won that game for sure,” says Moran.
The Titan girls will return to league play this weekend, starting with Del Norte on Friday, January 23 in Mt. Olympus. Tip-off for the girls’ varsity is at 5 p.m. and Moran knows it’s going to be another tough outing as injuries continue to plague his young squad.
“We’re limping into another big round,” says Moran. “We’ll just try to do the best we can. We understand there’s work to be done but they’re determined to get better. Our seniors Courtney and Ariel [Kilpatrick] are showing great leadership in these difficult times. We’re getting better, there’s no doubt about it, but it takes its toll playing these powerhouses.”