A late-game turnaround — highlighted by key 3-pointers, defensive stands, and clutch free throws — enabled the host Newtown High School girls’ basketball team to come from behind and nip the New Milford Green Wave 43-42 in a regular-season finale with playoff implications on February 14.

This was a significant win for the Nighthawks who handed the Wave only their third loss in conference play and, in the process, forged a three-way tie atop the South-West Conference joining Pomperaug of Southbury and Immaculate of Danbury as teams with only two SWC defeats this winter. The Nighthawks (17-3 overall and 11-2 in the SWC), by virtue of tiebreakers, earned the No. 2 seed in the conference tourney, which gets underway this Saturday, February 18. Pomperaug, a 48-47 winner over NHS this campaign, earned the No. 1 seed, Immaculate took the No. 3 spot, and New Milford is the No. 4 team.

Newtown will host No. 7 New Fairfield Saturday night in the quarterfinals at 6 o’clock. The Hawks are looking for things to go better than they did a year ago in the playoff opener. Last winter, Newtown was the No. 3 seed and got upset by No. 6 Brookfield.

“We have talked about that a lot — that we don’t want to end the way we did last year,” O’Connell said.

Earning the No. 2 seed took quite a comeback effort. New Milford led 10-9 after one quarter and 25-16 at the half. Newtown took its first lead two minutes into the second quarter when Bella Gerace got a defensive rebound and went coast-to-coast to make the score 13-12. The Green Wave finished the quarter on a 13-3 run and had a multi-possession lead for most of the second half. New Milford used quick hands to force early-game turnovers and its height to score in close and build a lead.

Big 3-pointers by Bridget McCleary to begin the third quarter and Gerace to close out the scoring in the stanza had Newtown within five at 31-26 through three quarters of play. New Milford pushed its lead to as much as nine in the period.

In the fourth, McCleary’s steal led to Sofi Verdi’s straightaway 3-pointer to get the Hawks within a few points at 32-29. Allie Bradley’s basket down low clipped the lead to just a point with just over six minutes remaining. After another defensive stand, Newtown seized its first lead of the half when McCleary finished off a nice bounce pass from Gerace on the fast break. It was 33-32 Nighthawks with 5:25 to go.

The Green Wave reclaimed the lead 1:05 later but Gerace answered with a drive and bank shot with 3:58 to go. Gerace then buried a left corner 3-pointer to extend the lead to 38-34 — Newtown’s first two-possession advantage of the night — with 3:25 left.

After New Milford got within three on a free throw, Bradley got an offensive rebound, was fouled, and made a pair of free throws for a 40-35 lead with 1:54 showing on the scoreboard clock.

New Milford trailed 40-37 and fouled Gerace with 36 seconds left. Gerace hit a front end one and one shot and the second free throw for a 42-37 lead. The Wave pulled to within three at 42-39 with only 11 seconds left. Gerace took the inbound pass and used her speed to chew six seconds off the clock and was fouled. With Newtown in the double bonus, Gerace had two attempts to ice things. After missing the first she calmly hit the clutch shot that proved to be the difference-maker.

New Milford’s Jade Wallace banked home a 3-pointer as time expired and the Hawks escaped in a close one.

Newtown Coach Jeremy O’Connell said the Hawks struggled in the opening half before improving out of the break.

“We did not do what we needed to do offensively and defensively,” he said of play in the first two quarters. “I was proud of them in the second half. We just did all the little things we needed to at the end of the game — help side defense was great, we moved without the ball, we were shot-ready, we weren’t scared to take the shot.”

Gerace acknowledged that the comeback effort was a bit nerve-racking.

“Definitely nervous but also excited and confident because we’ve been in this position before,” Gerace said. “We usually have a good third quarter coming out of the halftime speech so that gave us confidence.”

Bradley added: “It got us the 2 seed in the SWC, which is what we’ve been working for all season.”

Gerace scored 15 points, with 13 of them coming in the second half. Bradley dropped in 11, Ava Rochester scored six, all in the opening half, McCleary finished with five, Verdi contributed four, and Caron had two.

Bradley had 13 rebounds, ten of which came on the defensive end; Gerace and Bradley both had two steals; and Gerace, McCleary, and Bradley each had a block.

This was Senior Night and the Hawks honored Kristen Reisert, Gerace, and Bradley.

Newtown was coming off a 52-24 win over visiting Bunnell of Stratford on February 9. Caron scored ten, Bradley and Addy Cordova both scored eight, McCleary had seven, and Sam Diaspro and Gerace both recorded five points.

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