After doubling up visiting Bunnell of Stratford 42-21 on January 16, Newtown High School’s girls’ basketball team welcomed Ridgewood of New Jersey and had a heck of a battle that came down to the final buzzer with Ridgewood prevailing 47-45 on January 18. Then came a bounce-back win, 56-38 at Kolbe Cathedral of Bridgeport on January 21.

Against Bunnell, Mo Murphy and Sam Diaspro both scored eight points, Ana Morris registered seven, Addy Cordova six, Cassie Pickering five, and Ava Lombardo and Ava Rochester four each. Newtown led just 15-11 at the half before pulling away in the third quarter, building a 31-16 advantage through three quarters of play.

In the Ridgewood game Newtown had a 10-5 lead after one quarter and went ahead 14-5 just 18 seconds into the second when Diaspro completed a rare 4-point play, hitting a right corner 3-pointer despite being fouled and tacking on a point from the free throw line. Ridgewood then went on an 11-0 run to seize the lead and held a 21-16 halftime advantage.

The lead grew to double digits as the visitors opened the second half with a 5-0 run for a 26-16 lead. Midway through the third Newtown began to chip away beginning with Rochester’s baseline jumper for the Hawks’ first points of the half. Diaspro’s long-range shot from behind the right elbow of the 3-point arc helped Newtown get to within three at 32-29 heading to the fourth.

Murphy’s left-elbow 3 tied things just eight seconds into the final period, and Cordova’s steal led to another Murphy 3, this time from the left side, for a 35-32 Hawk lead with 6:53 to play. Newtown maintained its momentum out of a Ridgewood timeout. Morris came away with a steal and was fouled on her way to the hoop. She made both shots giving Newtown a 37-32 lead.

Ridgewood cut the deficit to a basket on a 3-pointer off a Newtown turnover, sparking a 10-0 run that turned a five-point NHS lead into a five-point Ridgewood advantage in a span of three minutes. It was 42-37 with 3:35 left. Pickering scored down low, making it 42-39 Ridgewood with 2:50 to go. Newtown’s defense forced a shot clock violation but the Hawks turned the ball over on the ensuing possession. Ridgewood went up 44-39 with 1:14 left. Diaspro hit a couple foul shots only eight seconds later and the margin was back to three.

Murphy came up with a clutch steal in the back court and an intentional foul was called against Ridgewood when she was pushed. Murphy hit a pair of foul shots, making it a 44-43 Ridgewood lead with only 55 seconds left. Newtown retained possession due to the intentional foul and Diaspro drew a foul and calmly sank the tying and go-ahead free throws for a 45-44 NHS edge with 44 seconds showing on the scoreboard clock.

Ridgewood answered with a 3-pointer with 24 seconds left. Newtown turned the ball over and had to foul a few times to get Ridgewood into the bonus and onto the free throw line in an attempt to get the ball back. The Hawks finally got Ridgewood to the line with three seconds left and, following Morris’ rebound the Hawks called timeout with two seconds remaining. Newtown executed a mid-court inbound play to perfection, getting the ball to Diaspro who drove toward the basket and was fouled as time expired. Her first free throw swirled around the rim, hit the backboard and clanked off, ending the game.

“That shot is like our season in a nutshell. It’s a microcosm of the season — so close but we can’t put it all together,” said Newtown Coach Jeremy O’Connell, whose team fell to 5-6 overall, with four of those setbacks coming by just five points or less.

“We did everything we wanted to do there,” O’Connell said of the waning-seconds setup and getting the ball into the hands of Newtown’s top scorer.

O’Connell liked the effort of his team and saw some potentially good signs with the Hawks breaking through against Ridgewood’s tough defense.

“Proud of the girls for fighting through it and taking some steps, some good steps in the second half against their press and their pressure which has been our Achilles heel all season,” the coach said.

Against Ridgewood, Diaspro and Murphy both scored 15 points to lead the Hawks. Diaspro had six rebounds and two steals; Pickering collected nine rebounds, a steal, and three assists; and Morris had five assists.

“We need to find a way to make sure we turn some of these Ls into Ws. We’ve got nine games left — we’ve got to get after it,” said O’Connell, whose team is bottled up with several schools vying for one of the eight South-West Conference playoff spots. Through January 21 action Pomperaug of Southbury and Bethel are at the top of the standings each with five conference wins. Newtown is among five schools with four SWC victories, and there are four teams with two or three wins very much in the SWC playoff hunt.

“We’re in a tough spot right now,” said O’Connell, who would like to see his team not only qualify for the conference tournament but also earn as good of a spot in the bracket as possible, following the Ridgewood matchup.

Newtown put itself into a much better position by winning at Kolbe (like NHS 4-2 in conference play) and moving up to sixth in the standings.

“We did all of the little things to be successful and we hit shots early and often,” O’Connell said after the Kolbe game.

Diaspro dropped in 22 points to go along with seven steals, Rochester logged a double-double with ten points and ten rebounds, Murphy registered ten points, and Morris handed out nine assists.

The Hawks are in an important stretch of games. After hosting Immaculate of Danbury on Thursday they entertain nonconference foe West Haven on Saturday, January 25 at 11:45 am, then host SWC rival Stratford Tuesday, January 28 at 6 pm. Immaculate (2-3 in SWC coming into the contest) and Stratford (3-3) are among that large cluster of teams competing for playoff spot.

Then, the stretch run features three of five games against conference opponents that came into this week having not won a game in SWC play (New Fairfield, Weston, and Brookfield), as well as contests with two stronger conference lineups in Notre Dame-Fairfield and Bethel.

Sports Editor Andy Hutchison can be reached at andyh@thebee.com.