Newtown High School’s boys’ basketball team extended its winning streak to four, following up a momentum-shifting 57-54 win over Kolbe Cathedral of Bridgeport on January 21 with a 65-49 win at Immaculate of Danbury on January 23, a 69-40 toppling of Bassick of Bridgeport in a nonconference tilt two days later, and a come-from-behind 44-40 W at Stratford on January 28.

For his efforts in the Kolbe, Bassick, and Immaculate contests, Aidan Walker — who scored 19 points, 25, and 25 again in those three matchups — earned South-West Conference Player of the Week honors and is in the running for Connecticut High School Coaches Association Player of the Week accolades (visit the CHSCA website to vote for Walker until 8 pm on Thursday, January 30).

There were a few keys to the victories over Immaculate and Bassick.

“In both games, we were able to defend and rebound well, which kept the other team from going on a big run. In both games we had several kids score well, which makes it very difficult for the other team to defend us,” Coach Matt Murphy said.

In addition to top scorers Walker and Drew Bradley (20 points in the Immaculate game and 16 versus Bassick), Marcus Gerace was locked in from long range and helped the Nighthawks build on their leads, finishing with nine and 15 points, respectively, in the two games.

“He made three 3-pointers in the second quarter that helped us extend our lead to 20 at the half,” Murphy said of Gerace’s 3-point shooting prowess helping the Nighthawks pull ahead 38-18 at the half against Immaculate. Gerace hit four 3-pointers in the Bassick game.

“These types of contributions have been the difference for us in the last week or so. Aidan and Drew have consistently scored all season, but the addition of another scorer has really helped,” Murphy said.

In the win over Immaculate Bradley came up with eight rebounds, three assists, and two steals; and Moxham had four rebounds, three assists, two steals, and a block.

The Hawks had scoring contributions from ten players against Bassick with Asher Williams, Luke Stewart, Jack Glassman, Teddy Moxham, James Glynn, Quinn Velez, and Spencer Maddox all registering at least two points.

Walker and Gerace both had two steals; Williams had six rebounds, a steal, and a block; Stewart had four assists and a block; Bradley and Moxham both grabbed seven rebounds with Moxham adding a pair of blocks; Velez accounted for two rebounds and two blocks; and Velez had four rebounds and two blocks.

The win at Stratford was notable on two fronts; the Hawks erased an early double-digit deficit and pulled out a closely-contested game after three nail-biters early in the season. This makes it two down-to-the-wire victories in a row with Kolbe being the other.

Stratford led 19-6 through one quarter of play. Newtown chipped away and was down 25-17 at the half and 28-23 going to the fourth, holding the Red Devils to just three points in the third. The Hawks outscored Stratford 21-12 in the final stanza to complete the comeback. They made 14 of 17 free throw attempts, including some clutch late freebies to seal things. Bradley had 16 points and Walker dropped in 15 to lead the offense. Walker was 7-for-8 from the charity stripe, sinking six of his free throws in the final period and Bradley finished 6-of-8, with three made free throws down the stretch.

Newtown improved to 7-7 overall, 5-3 in SWC play, with six regular-season games left. The Hawks visit New Fairfield Friday, January 31 at 7 pm. They are among six schools with between four and six SWC wins all looking to earn one of the top four conference playoff spots and a first-round tournament home tilt. New Fairfield has six SWC victories. The Nighthawks have yet to play first-place Notre Dame-Fairfield along with two of those teams in the mix for one of the top spots — Bethel and Weston — as well as one-win Brookfield. The other remaining game is with FCIAC foe Greenwich.

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