Boys’ Basketball Team Loses To Weston—

Tough Defense, One Quarter Do In Nighthawks

By Andy Hutchison

Quarter after quarter, throughout the year, Newtown High School’s boys’ basketball team’s man to man defense picked apart opposing offenses to keep the team in most games and in the playoff hunt. In a February 17 game at Weston, a single quarter by the Trojans’ strong defense — in effect — separated Newtown from a possible berth in the conference playoffs.

The Trojans gave the Nighthawks a dose of their own medicine, holding Newtown without a second-quarter field goal, and limiting the visitors to a single point in the stanza, en route to a 60-45 win in a battle of teams fighting to stay alive in the South-West Conference playoff picture.

Newtown, by virtue of the defeat, was officially eliminated as they headed into Wednesday’s regular-season finale against Stratford (after The Bee sports section went to press). NHS fell to 5-8 in conference play and the Trojans improved to 7-6 to keep their SWC playoff hopes alive.

The reality was that Weston was ultrastingy defensively throughout the first three quarters of the game. Newtown mustered just ten first-half points in falling behind 34-10 at the break. The Nighthawks trailed 51-24 after three quarters.

Almost every Newtown shot — from outside or in close — was contested. When the Trojans didn’t get to rebounds, their defenders swarmed the Newtown player with the ball, double-teaming and trapping NHS players when they could. Weston also forced numerous turnovers and cashed in with fast-break points to build the lead.

“I have never seen — for three quarters — better team defense all season,” Newtown Coach John Quinn said. “Every time we’d rebound, they converged — a credit to them. They just took it to us defensively and … we couldn’t get out of it. They were great.”

The Nighthawks got 16 points from Connor Quinn, and 10 from Kyle Wilcox. They made more happen, offensively, in the second half — and Coach Quinn was hopeful that would carry over into the season-finale and on into the state tournament, which gets underway in early March.