Kelley, Good Lead NHS Girls To Wins

By Andy Hutchison

Leading scorer Sara Kelley dropped in 20 points to help the Newtown High School girls’ basketball team overcome an early 11-0 deficit to Joel Barlow in a 40-30 win on January 9. Jordyn Good then scored a career-high 24 points to pace the Nighthawks in a 55-32 win over Bethel this past Tuesday.

Good stepped up on a night in which the Nighthawks were shorthanded. Key players Jen Brewer (who was sick) and Nora Lynn Shimko (battling a wrist injury) were out of the lineup.

“Good things happen to good people,” NHS Coach Shawn O’Brien said of the senior captain. “She’s got her engine running all season for us. She just plays hard all the time.”

Kelley added 11 points and the Nighthawks are on a three-game winning streak, which gives them a record of 6-3 (3-1 in the South-West Conference).

“We still have the toughest part of our schedule ahead of us, so we have to make some ground up right now,” O’Brien said.

Barlow and Bethel each came into The Hawks Nest with two wins, so the Nighthawks viewed those as necessary to win to bolster their playoff hopes. Up next is a Friday, January 16, road game in Weston. Although Weston, like each of Newtown’s last two opponents, will have just two wins when the teams match up, the game stands to be competitive. Weston nearly upset 8-1 New Fairfield before falling by five points on Tuesday.

Newtown has already proven that records can be thrown out the window. The Nighthawks, after all, were 3-3 overall when they handed New Fairfield its first defeat on January 6.

Following the Weston game, NHS hosts 3-5 Stratford (this coming Tuesday at 5:15 pm) and then schedule features some top SWC teams, including seven-win Masuk, a tough 5-3 Immaculate squad, 6-3 Lauralton Hall, which has already defeated Newtown, and unbeaten Kolbe Cathedral.