By Steve Bigham

John Quinn threw away his playbook in the final seconds of Newtown High’s matchup with Joel Barlow Tuesday night. The head coach could only pray his team would come out alive in this key South-West Conference (SWC) game.

And when it was over, he glanced to the sky to give thanks for the Nighthawks’ somewhat bizarre 31-30 win.

Barlow forward Alex Gray’s 15-foot jump shot missed the mark as time expired, ending the Falcons’ upset bid. Had the shot fallen, the entire makeup of the SWC playoff race would have been disrupted. As it was, Newtown raised its SWC record to 8-5, 10-8 overall. Barlow fell to 6-7 in the SWC, 7-11 overall.

“That buzzer could not have come soon enough,” said Quinn who described the game as surreal. “This was far and away the strangest game I’ve coached during my two years here.”

The low-scoring contest was a result of Barlow’s stall tactics, which its coach, Bob Menegay, employed in an effort to slow down Newtown’s attack. The Falcon’s led, 5-4, at the end of the first period.

“Newtown has a lot of firepower. We wanted to upset the tempo,” Menegay said. “It was senior night here and I’m sure they wanted a little showtime. We wanted to deflate that balloon.”

And Joel Barlow almost did. The Nighthawks never led by more than four points despite having several opportunities to put the game away. The locals struggled from the field all night, committed more than a dozen turnovers and missed six of eight free throws in the final three minutes to open the door for the visiting team from Redding.

Gray’s layup with 49 seconds to go cut Newtown’s advantage to 31-30 and after a Newtown turnover, Barlow looked to take the lead when Bryan Kowalinski found himself wide open under the basket. His shot rimmed out, however, and Newtown regained possession.

“I have no idea how that kid missed that. I said a quick Hail Mary and it fell out,” Quinn said.

Newtown’s Courtney Steele (12 points) was fouled with 15 seconds to play, but missed both foul shots, setting up Barlow’s last-ditch attempt to win the game.

Newtown has now won five in a row and seven of its last eight, moving the team closer and closer to an SWC postseason berth. The ‘ Hawks rolled over a weak Jonathan Law squad, 80-47, last Friday in a game that saw 12 different Newtown players get into the game with nine of them scoring.

Tuesday’s game was a totally different matchup with only four players breaking into the scoring column. John Fiscella led Newtown’s low-scoring parade with 16 points, including 3-of-4 foul shots in the final quarter. He also buried a three-pointer as the halftime buzzer sounded to give his squad an 11-10 lead. His other three-pointer – midway through the third period – gave Newtown a 19-16 lead.

Sophomore Ryan Walker provided a big lift off the bench in the fourth quarter, pulling down a huge offensive rebounds, then dishing to Steele for the score and a 24-20 lead. Walker played several minutes in the Law win, scoring six points and playing well in a preview of what’s to come over the next two years.

Fiscella’s three free throws early in the fourth quarter gave Newtown a 27-22 lead. However, Barlow answered with a pair of buckets to cut the lead to one with 4:35 to play. Newtown then missed the front end of two-straight one-and-one opportunities before Rich Engel finally hit one of two to increase the lead to 28-26.

Barlow’s Ben Visnyei then tied the game on a driving layup before Steele responded with a bucket inside.

Newtown won despite making just 7-of-20 free throws for the game . . . 5-of-11 in the final quarter. Quinn credited Barlow for taking his team out of its normal flow.

The Nighthawks must regain that flow Friday night as it travels to Weston for another key SWC matchup. A win would likely wrap up a playoff berth for Newtown. A loss would probably mean that Newtown would be in a must-win situation next Tuesday when it heads to Foran of Milford.

Against Law, Newtown used a 62-30 run over the final three quarters for its most lopsided win of the season.

JOEL BARLOW   5   5  10  10 - 30

NEWTOWN        4   7  11    9 - 31

 

JOEL BARLOW (30): Alex Gray 3 2-2 8, Jason Heibeck 0 3-4 3, Bryan Kowalinski 3 0-0 6, Steve Gmelin 2 0-0 4, Brandon Kaufman 0 3-4 3, Chris Lucci 0 0-0 0, Paul Delco 0 0-0 0, Erik Seide 0 0-0 0, Ben Visnyei 3 0-0 6. Totals:11 8-10 30.

NEWTOWN (31): Courtney Steele 4 4-8 12, John Fiscella 4 6-8 16, Jason Godoy 0 0-0 0, Rich Engel 0 1-3 1, Bret McEvoy 0 0-0 0, Josh Dittmar 0 0-0 0, John Wesley 1 0-0 2, Andrew Smith 0 0-0 0, Ryan Walker 0 0-0 0. Totals: 9 11-30 31.

Three-pointers: Fiscella (N) 2.

 

JONATHAN LAW 17 10  10  10 - 47

NEWTOWN      18  19  15  28 - 80

 

JONATHAN LAW (47): Brandon Adams 0 0-2 0, Mike Picarazzi 1 0-1 3, Luke Velentine 1 6-6 8, Justin Zywocinski 10 4-4 24, Ryan McDonald 1 1-2 4, Troy Bataille 1 0-0 2, Jason Delgado 1 0-0 2, Jared Cianciolo 0 1-2 1, Travis Flynn 0 1-2 1, Larry Durante 1 0-0 2. Totals: 16 13-19 47.

NEWTOWN (80): Courtney Steele 11 3-4 26, John Fiscella 1 0-0 2, Jason Godoy 5 2-2 13, Rich Engel 2 0-0 5, Bret McEvoy 1 0-0 3, Josh Dittmar 5 0-1 11, John Wesley 3 1-2 7, Jeff Wolcott 2 2-2 7, Andrew Smith 0 0-0 0, Ryan Walker 3 0-0 6, Glen Stiewing 0 0-0 0, Colin Anderson 0 0-0 0. Totals: 33 8-10 80.

Three-pointers: Steele (N), Engel (N), McEvoy (N), Godoy (N), Dittmar (N), Picarazzi (JL), McDonald (JL).