Nighthawk Girls Upset Lauralton Hall, Keep Rolling With Seventh Straight Win

By Andy Hutchison

Since a strong second half in an otherwise disappointing game and loss to Masuk of Monroe back on January 14, the Newtown High School girls’ basketball team has been unbeatable. The Nighthawks have won seven games in a row, highlighted by an upset triumph over visiting Lauralton Hall of Milford on February 7.

Hall came into the NHS gymnasium sporting an 11-2 overall record (and a perfect 10-0 mark in South-West Conference play). Newtown made that 10-1 in a 40-33 win over the visiting Crusaders.

“Every win is a good win. These are especially, maybe a little sweeter, but everything means the same,” Newtown Coach Jeremy O’Connell said. “But it’s always nice to beat a team of Lauralton Hall’s caliber because they’re one of the top teams in the state — and they have been all year.”

Newtown held a Hall team, which had scored no less than 61 points in each of its previous eight games, to its lowest point total of the campaign. A stifling defensive effort held Hall’s Nicole Matera, one of the conference’s top scorers, to just one point. Newtown improved to 13-3 overall (9-2 in conference play) then topped Notre Dame-Fairfield the next night, 41-35, to carry a 14-3 record into a Friday, February 11, game at Oxford. Bridget Power scored 15 points and Riley Wurtz dropped in 14 in the win over Notre Dame.

In the team’s most impressive win of the season, O’Connell said the game plan was to closely guard Matera and for defensive help to be ready when needed. Jess Lynch led the Matera-stymieing efforts. O’Connell knew his team would score points and the talk before the game was that the Hawks could pull off the win by taking away Hall’s most prominent scoring threat. “If we hold them and take them out of what they want to do, we can be successful,” said O’Connell, referring to Newtown’s mindset from the onset.

Newtown led 27-12 at halftime and established a 17-point lead early in the third. The Crusaders were never really in the game but managed to finally get the deficit down to single digits with less than a minute to play thanks, in part, to Newtown’s struggles at the free throw line (3-for-14 in the final quarter).

That was about the only thing Newtown didn’t do well on this night. Wurtz scored 15 points, driving to the rim on the fast break, spotting up from the outside and turning steals into points. Wurtz had four steals and four assists. Power compiled 14 points, got to four defensive rebounds, and came up with three steals. Erin Kenning and Lynch combined for 11 points to account for the rest of Newtown’s offense.

“Defense creates our offense — basically,” Power said.

Other Wins

The Nighthawks beat Kolbe Cathedral of Bridgeport, 53-44, and Brookfield, 55-43, in back to back games February 3 and 4. In the win over Brookfield, Wurtz scored 14, Lynch had 13, Power 12, and Abbey Doski 9. In the victory over Kolbe, Lynch led the way with 24, Wurtz scored a dozen, and Kenning and Power each added a half dozen points. As O’Connell said, every win is important, but the victory over Hall certainly was the team’s most noteworthy of the season.

“That was a huge win for us. It feels good but we just have to keep pushing forward,” Lynch said.

Newtown, following the Oxford game, will close out the regular season with a home game against Pomperaug of Southbury at 7 pm on February 14, and a road tilt with New Fairfield two days later. Then, it’s on to the SWC playoffs beginning February 19.

The team hopes to have Carly Iwanicki, out from recent game action with a knee injury, back on the floor soon, O’Connell said.