By Kim J. Harmon

It will go down as one of the great individual efforts of the last 10 years (or so) but – unfortunately – it will lose a little luster because it was packaged inside a 56-48 loss to the No. 1 team in the South-West Conference, Lauralton Hall.

Junior center Lisa Masella scored 21 points and pulled down 16 rebounds and all but carried the Newtown High School girls’ basketball team through its tough Monday night matchup with undefeated Hall.

But, in the end, it wasn’t quite enough. No, Lauralton Hall showed why it is 19-0 overall and 15-0 in the SWC when it displayed an ability to move and handle the basketball and an ability – when the interior was sealed off – to hit the open jumper.

Of course, it didn’t help that Newtown stumbled a bit in the first quarter and fell into a 15-2 hole.

“I think it was all the jitters,” said Masella. “We were all hyped up about Senior Night and so excited and we had wanted to go out there with the mentality that we had to play like we did against Norwalk.”

But Keesha Bendolph (17 points) and Hollie Miller both knocked down early three-pointers to give Lauralton Hall a quick, 8-0 lead. Masella stopped that run by dropping in her first basket after a Lori Iwanicki steal, but Hall went on a 7-2 run to close out the quarter and take a 15-4 lead.

With an 11-point deficit, were the Nighthawks (who were down 21 points to New Fairfield and rallied back in less than a quarter to take a brief lead) thinking they were already out of it?

“That never crossed our minds,” said Masella. “Not once.”

And for good reason – they weren’t out of it.

After a foul shot early in the second quarter gave Lauralton Hall an 18-7 lead, the Nighthawks began the rally. It started with a pair of foul shots by Jayme Beckham and really picked up steam when Masella scored eight points (broken up only by one Hall basket) to trim the deficit right down to three points, 20-17.

During the run, the ‘Hawks began taking advantage of the disparity in height and worked the low post hard. Jessica Oswald floated in a couple of nice passes to Masella in the blocks and Masella simply turned with her arms extended and dropped in a couple of easy baskets.

“We knew we had the height advantage,” Masella explained, “and once we started working it, it just took off.”

Beckham had a nice runner in the lane and Amanda Marsilio (who made a beautiful assist on the Beckham hoop) added a low post basket and a pair of foul shots and the ‘Hawks went into the break down just five, 28-23.

Masella scored five more points in the early stages of the second half and Marsilio added a pair of foul shots and with 4:10 left in the third period, the game was all tied up at 30-30. Hall scored a pair of baskets to go back ahead by four, but Ally Gellert had a nice drive to the basket for two and Iwanicki added a nice drive of her own (off a great Gellert pass) for two of her own and the game was tied back up at 34-34.

Hall dropped in a foul shot to go up by one, 35-34, but Morgan Haines canned a spot up, baseline jumper with 16 seconds left in the third quarter to give the Nighthawks their first lead of the game, 36-35.

Trouble was, it was their only lead.

Bendolph hit a shot to beat the third quarter buzzer that put Hall ahead for good, 37-36. The game remained close in the first half of the fourth quarter, but Hall managed to ease further ahead of the ‘Hawks until it had a seven-point lead, 47-40, with just two minutes left.

Freshman Kelley Haines, though, hit a huge three-point basket with 58 seconds left to trim the Hall lead to four, 49-45, and give the ‘Hawks some fleeting hope of pulling the game out but Hall began making the march to the foul line (Hall was 20-of-35 from the charity stripe for the game) and ended up putting the game away.

With Masella’s 21-point effort leading the way, Beckham finished with eight points, Marsilio added six and Kelley Haines chipped in with five. The loss dropped Newtown to 15-4 overall, 11-4 in the SWC.

And with just one game left on Wednesday against Foran (after press time), the ‘Hawks started preparing for the South-West Conference quarter-finals, which will be held Saturday at Masuk High School in Monroe.

Games will be at 1 pm, 3 pm, 6 pm and 8 pm. The semi-finals will be held Tuesday, February 27, with the finals to follow on Friday, March 2.

Two-Game Win Streak

The loss to Lauralton Hall stopped a modest two-game winning streak for the Nighthawks that began with a 39-30 decision over Bethel last Wednesday and continued with an 82-11 win over Jonathan Law last Friday.

In the win over Bethel, the ‘Hawks broke open a close game by out-scoring the Lady Wildcats, 10-4, in the final quarter. Masella finished with 12 points, Marsilio added eight, and Iwanicki and Haines chipped in four apiece.

In the victory over winless Law, the ‘Hawks attempted to break out of their shooting slump and seemed to do pretty well. Eleven different players got into the scorebook and three – Marsilio (12), Gellert (10) and Beckham (10) – finished in double figures.

Shannon Kohn had her best game with eight points. Lauren Adamek and Oswald chipped in with six points apiece.