In a visit to South-West Conference foe Immaculate of Danbury on January 23 Newtown High School’s girls’ basketball team had its most complete game of the campaign, winning 48-32. Newtown fell 46-44 in a closely-contested battle with visiting nonconference opponent West Haven in an afternoon tilt on January 25. The Nighthawks rebounded with a 60-48 win over visiting SWC rival Stratford on January 28. Newtown improved to 8-7 overall and 6-2 in SWC play.

“It’s the best we’ve played all season. We shot the ball well, played great defense. We hit shots when we needed to hit shots,” Coach Jeremy O’Connell said of the Immaculate game. “It was a well-balanced and really well-played game, top to bottom, for us. Everything clicked in that game.”

The Newtown coach added that the Immaculate contest matched the success of his team in road wins over Cromwell and Kolbe Cathedral of Bridgeport.

Specifically on defense, Addy Cordova and Macey Arcario face-guarded Immaculate standout Kendra Foy, limiting her to just seven points — well below her season average.

Newtown led Immaculate 25-13 at the half. Mo Murphy finished the game with five 3-points and 10 points to lead the offense and Sam Diaspro had 14 points. Ana Morris contributed four points, seven rebounds, five assists, and a block. Murphy added three rebounds, two steals, and four assists.

The West Haven game was another thriller that went the wrong way for the Hawks. A great contest, back and forth, this one came down to the final buzzer. It marked Newtown’s fifth loss by just five points or fewer and second straight Saturday home defeat by two points, decided on a final-shot miss.

“They are good games — they’re fun. I wish we could win some of these close games,” O’Connell said.

“The resiliency has been great. We keep making the same mistakes throughout the game and it has a detrimental effect at the end of the game because we’ve always been fighting back instead of being comfortably ahead,” O’Connell said.

Newtown missed six of 11 free throw attempts and some missed rebound opportunities as well as turnovers, which proved costly.

The Nighthawks led West Haven 29-25 at the half, scoring 21 points in the second quarter alone. They were outscored 9-4 in a defensive-minded third quarter and trailed 34-33 heading to the fourth. Leading by a point in the final period the Hawks pushed their lead to three on Diaspro’s basket despite a foul. It was 39-36 with 5:34 left. Newtown went the next four minutes without a point, a stretch during which West Haven forced turnovers on a steal on the defensive end it converted into a basket, as well as inbound and shot clock violations.

Still, it was anybody’s game throughout the entirety of the fourth with the always-strong NHS defense giving the team a chance. A West Haven 3-pointer, following an offensive rebound, broke a tie and made it 42-39 visitors with 2:25 to play. A pair of West Haven foul shots capped an 8-0 run, making the score 44-39 with 1:52 left. Morris ended the scoring drought when she canned a left side 3-pointer with 1:34 to go and, after a defensive stand the Hawks got the score back to even on Pickering’s clutch offensive rebound and putback with 33 seconds to go. West Haven retook the lead on a field goal with seven seconds left and a last-second Newtown 3-pointer missed the mark.

Pickering had a big game with 21 points, ten of those in the second quarter; Diaspro had nine; Morris five; and Cordova, Arcario, and Murphy all scored four. Morris collected four rebounds, four steals, and eight assists. Pickering had eight rebounds, a steal, and two assists.

O’Connell noted that the schedule has not done Newtown any favors to begin the calendar year.

“We’ve played ten games in 21 days. That’s a brutal stretch for anyone,” the coach said.

Newtown’s Saturdays have been loaded with nonconference tilts and the team now gets into a routine — weather permitting — with a regular schedule of two games a week and more practice time.

The Hawks hosted Stratford to take on one of the teams chasing them in the conference standings and built a 25-14 halftime lead on the way to the 12-point victory. Diaspro and Morris each hit a pair of 3-pointers and scored 20 and 14, respectively; Murphy hit a trio of 3-pointers for nine points; Ava Rochester scored eight and Pickering seven. Diaspro had three steals and five assists; Rochester grabbed a dozen rebounds, had two assists, and came away with a steal; Pickering compiled nine rebounds — eight on the defensive end — to go along with an assist, steal, and block; and Morris had five assists, three rebounds, and two steals.

“We needed it,” O’Connell said of the win. “A lot of kids got in. We got some kids some much-needed rest.”

Coming off that busy stretch the Hawks may be settling into a two-games-a-week pattern but there was only one day for practice and rest between tilts this week with the next game two nights later. New Fairfield visited and the Hawks continued their winning ways with a 45-36 victory.

The last two weeks of the regular slate feature Tuesday/Friday and Monday/Friday contests. Newtown is behind only Pomperaug of Southbury and Bethel, and battling with New Milford, Kolbe Cathedral, Notre Dame-Fairfield, Joel Barlow of Redding, and Masuk of Monroe for one of the other top four spots and first-round SWC tourney home game as the season winds down.

The Hawks own tiebreakers over New Milford, Kolbe, and Barlow, and face Notre Dame on the road, Tuesday, February 4 at 6 pm. They still have Brookfield (winless on SWC action), Weston (one win), and Bethel on the schedule.

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