By Kim J. Harmon

After being so good for so long, it seems as if fate may be evening things out for the Newtown Middle School basketball program

At least for now.

Both the girls and boys teams have stumbled at the start of the 2005-06 season, losing their first three games  Each was hoping to finally break through this week against Whisconier Middle School of Brookfield.

The games had been slated for Tuesday, but the anticipation of foul weather forced their postponement. The seventh- and eighth-grade NMS boys tipped off on Wednesday while the seventh- and eighth-grade girls will tip off Friday in Brookfield.

The boys opened the season with a 63-48 loss to Memorial of Middlebury despite 26 points from George Zaruba (who popped in four three-pointers). Peter Young added eight points while Ralph Sergiovanni chipped in three.

In a 43-37 loss to Jockey Hollow following the holiday break, Zaruba had 12 points while Kyle DiNicola had seven and Young and Robbie Phillips combined for nine more. And in a 43-34 loss to Rochambeau last week, Zaruba canned 15 points as Casey Tenney popped in six (on a pair of three-pointers) and Young had five. Ben Mahony, Kyle Kromberg, DiNicola and Sergiovanni contributed two points apiece.

The girls opened the season with a 48-28 loss to Memorial of Middlebury. Sara Kelley, Kate Bowen and Ali Modzelewski powered the offense while Kate Marsden, Lyndsey Burns, Lisa Vendel and Carolyn Fagan had strong games on defense.

“The one thing I will always remember about this game was how hard the girls played,” said head coach Will Ryan. “They were down by 20 points, but by watching how hard they were trying, it was as if they were down by two points. They kept that effort up the entire game, and that would make any coach proud.”

The Lady Lions followed up with a 37-32 loss to Jockey Hollow as Kelley canned 10 points while Bowen and Fagan popped in six points apiece. Vendel, Modzelewski, Burns, Hannah Basch-Gould and Nicole Elias played tough defense and kept us in the game.

Last week, the locals suffered a 37-28 loss to Rochambeau – this time by a count of 37-28. A 9-8 first-period lead slipped out of their grasp as Fagan dropped in the only two buckets of the second period. Rochambeau went up as much as 13 points midway through the third before the Lady Lions rallied and pulled to within five points early in the fourth on a pair of foul shots by Kelley. But from that point, the visitors went on a 6-2 run to close out the game.

The locals were 6-of-10 from the line in the second half as they rallied with key buckets coming from Brittany Wiberg and Fagan. Also, Bowen had a pair of baskets and a nifty assist to Kelley to keep hope alive.