Niwot girls basketball opens season with pair of losses

With just one week to prepare, Niwot girls basketball opened its season on the wrong side of the scoreboard against Roosevelt on Jan. 26 and Riverdale Ridge on Jan. 30.

Head coach Terri Ward dubbed Roosevelt a top-10 4A team and the Roughriders left Niwot's home court with a 79-19 win. Senior Grace Wardle led the Cougars in scoring with six points on a pair of three-pointers. Another senior, MacKenzie Demmel, who took last season off to play volleyball, used her hops to snag nine rebounds.

Roosevelt's physicality simply outmatched Niwot according to Ward. Additionally, she said that Roosevelt has been able to play together for much of the fall and winter while Niwot is still working to mesh.

"I think we're all just working at figuring out who does what best and how to make all our bests cover up anybody's other weaknesses," Ward said. "(A player's) weakness might be covered up by another player's strength and we haven't quite figured that out yet."

In Niwot's second contest at Riverdale Ridge High School, the Ravens pounded the Cougars with a series of big scoring runs and took a 29-7 lead into halftime. Despite trailing by a large margin in the fourth quarter, junior Rachel Noble impressed late with a smooth jump shot make and a steal that led to a layup.

The early deficit was too much for Niwot to handle, however, eventually ending in a 56-20 loss. Ward believed that Niwot had the talent to compete with Riverdale Ridge but couldn't put up enough big runs to make a comeback.

For Ward, improving her team's fundamentals will be a large focus in a 14-game COVID-19 shortened season. She said Niwot's offense will need more work than their defense and it won't come without effort.

"It's going to be a struggle I think but we're working hard," Ward said. "Sooner hopefully rather than later, things are going to start to click a little bit better; We're going to feel more comfortable in what we're doing and it'll really really show on the court."

Turnovers were an issue in both games as Niwot is working to replace point guard Nikki Sims who graduated last year. Wardle and junior Carly Toothaker have been running the point guard duties through two games.

"They've got to figure out how to make this their team to work to run and how to run an offense efficiently" Ward said. "It's a work in progress and unfortunately, we have five weeks left."

Niwot will have just 12 more games to gel in the challenging 4A Longs Peak Conference. Ward's Cougars will now turn their attention to the Longmont Trojans on Wednesday, Feb. 3.

"We'll be at full strength on Wednesday and (I'm) looking forward to that game," Ward said. "It's always a fun game to play Longmont."