Ravaged by COVID, Cougars limp through weekend tournament

It hasn't been easy for Niwot boys basketball to put together a formidable team in recent weeks. Head coach Clay Wittrock estimated that since early December, nine Cougars have missed games and/or practices due to impacts of COVID-19.

Niwot canceled its recent Steamboat Springs trip (which has been rescheduled for Jan. 4) and is waiting to reschedule games against Colorado Academy and Eagle Valley that were missed during a five-day program shutdown.

Low numbers and moving pieces have been a stark reality for Wittrock this entire season.

"We've been fighting injury and illness since tryouts," Wittrock said on Dec. 16. "This week was the first time with three practices with basically the same group of guys, and then still adding guys daily."

After winning their first game of the season, the Cougars are now 1-5 following losses to Bear Creek, Evergreen and Longmont in Longmont High's Trojan Classic Invitational.

The Cougars' depth was tested again on Dec. 16 with five players out due to COVID-19 protocols in their opening game of the event. Loaded with multiple junior varsity swing players, Niwot was simply outmatched against Bear Creek in a 58-38 loss.

Senior Rowan Granat took advantage of his availability with a 13-point, six-rebound performance. The six-foot four-inches forward missed all of last season with an injury and is quickly making up for lost time.

"He's still getting his legs back and I think getting used to playing at his best," Wittrock said. "I think we saw some good spurts of that tonight. We saw him attacking a little better and finding that (high level of play)."

On the other end of the grade spectrum, freshman Jack Jarvis also had a solid offensive performance with 10 points. Wittrock said his young point guard still has some things to learn but is coming along nicely.

"He brings some talented abilities on the offensive side that helped us out tonight," Wittrock said. "He's just got to keep learning how hard you got to play defense at this level."

However, the Cougars struggled with developing fast break opportunities and turned the ball over 27 times. But considering the challenge of having to mesh with multiple replacement players, Wittrock was proud of how his team fought.

"We had moments in there where we settled down and did some really good things, and then we'd manage to turn around and do something that wasn't quite as smart. I think that's part of when you've got guys that are not quite on the same page, they haven't played together as much."

Evergreen came next for Niwot on Dec. 17 in what could be known as the Jack Jarvis game. The freshman hit six three-pointers en route to an impressive 27 points. Jarvis' effort wasn't quite enough, however, as the Cougars fell 63-52.

After falling behind 16-3 after the first quarter, Niwot outscored Evergreen 49-47 in the final three quarters to make things interesting.

On the boards, sophomore Brock Rothstein and senior Stephen Sahaj, who were both still quarantined for the Bear Creek game, combined for 10 rebounds in their return. Junior Jerek Funkhouser chipped in as well with 10 points.

Niwot wrapped up the round robin tournament on Dec. 18 with a 63-22 loss to Longmont.

The Cougars will have a chance to recover after a break that ends Jan. 4 at Steamboat Springs.