As the buzzer sounded, the ball fell through the hoop. Then Newtown High School’s basketball team’s bench flooded out on the court in jubilation and the fans went wild. Bridget McCleary’s rebound and putback bank shot gave Newtown a thrilling, dramatic 37-35 victory over visiting rival Immaculate of Danbury on February 4.

The postgame celebration was a taste of what the Nighthawks narrowly missed just two days and one game earlier. The Hawks dropped a 48-47 heart-breaker to visiting Pomperaug of Southbury when a missed free throw to tie and subsequent field goal attempt for the lead, off the offensive rebound, in the waning seconds were off the mark. Despite the outcome against Pomperaug, that game experience aided the Hawks as they went to the finish line of a tightly-contested battle with Immaculate.

“I think that helped give us the confidence knowing even if we had our backs against the wall we could pull out a win,” Newtown Coach Jeremy O’Connell said.

The Immaculate game was dominated by defense and had some offensive struggles that also kept the scoring down.

“We knew all year we were going to have to grind out games,” said O’Connell, pointing to a hard-fought 48-36 comeback win at Notre Dame-Fairfield, the Pomperaug clash, and the Immaculate battle as prime examples of closely-contested matchups. “We like the low-scoring, grind out game.”

Newtown’s defense was stellar in handing Immaculate just its second loss and holding the Mustangs to their lowest point total of the winter.

The Nighthawks led 8-5 after one quarter but managed just one hoop — McCleary’s 3-pointer at the mid-point — in a second quarter that saw Immaculate finish on a 7-0 run for a 16-11 halftime lead.

Newtown came out strong in the third. Allie Bradley’s basket off glass, followed by an Izzy Caron steal and bucket gave the Hawks four quick points; it was 16-15 just 1:10 out of the break. NHS answered a 5-0 Mustang run when Caron sandwiched a single Immaculate free throw with a pair of 3-pointers to knot things at 21 apiece.

Another Immaculate foul shot staked the Mustangs to a one-point lead before McCleary set up Sofia Verdi for a go-ahead bucket, making it 23-22 Nighthawks with 1:50 to go in the third. That score held going to the fourth.

The teams went back and forth, trading leads, early in the final stanza. Another couple of Caron baskets from downtown quickly turned a 26-25 deficit into a 31-26 Nighthawk lead with 4:49 remaining. After the Mustangs scored three points, Bella Gerace nailed a 3-pointer to give the Hawks a 34-29 lead with 3:04 left.

Immaculate chipped away with a pair of made free throws in four attempts to get within three. A missed Newtown front end one and one foul shot yielded a fast-break Immaculate basket to get within a point at 34-33 with 37 seconds to go. Gerace was fouled and made a front end one and one foul shot for a 35-33 lead with exactly a half-minute remaining.

The Mustangs evened the score when Colleen Blackman scored despite a foul, with 24 seconds left. After a Newtown timeout, the free throw was off the mark, leaving the game tied and setting the stage for the heroics. McCleary was in position for the rebound off a missed 3-point try and gave Newtown a nice bounce-back win.

Caron scored a dozen on her four 3-pointers, Gerace dropped in 11, scoring six on a pair from beyond the arc, and McCleary and Bradley both contributed five points. McCleary had 12 rebounds and three assists; Bradley and Ava Rochester each grabbed ten rebounds and a steal, and Bradley blocked a shot.

Newtown came oh so close to giving Pomperaug only its third loss. Gerace piled up 24 points, hitting a 3-pointer in each quarter. McCleary had seven and Bradley and Caron both had six and Rochester added four. Newtown trailed 24-22 at the half and the game was even at 33 apiece after three.

“I was really happy with the energy and the effort. Both teams went on runs; both teams played hard,” O’Connell said of the Pomperaug game.

Win or lose, these games are helping the Hawks get ready for postseason.

“These are playoff games right now — the whole week was a playoff-style week,” said O’Connell, alluding to the fact Newtown was jockeying for one of the top South-West Conference tourney spots against some of the top competition in the SWC.

Newtown, after hosting Bunnell of Stratford on Thursday, will host a New Milford team which, heading into Thursday’s game with Stratford, had lost just two times in conference action, in the regular-season finale on Tuesday, February 14 at 7 pm.

There is plenty of parity at the top of the conference. The Nighthawks, Pomperaug, New Milford, Immaculate, each with two defeats in the SWC, and Brookfield with three SWC losses all enter into the stretch run vying for the top seeds, and yet one of these teams will be on the road as the fifth seed to begin the conference tourney when quarterfinals are held on February 18.

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