Come-from-behind efforts have become commonplace for Newtown High School’s girls’ basketball team, but the Nighthawks outdid themselves in a pair of thrilling South-West Conference tournament games this week. Unfortunately for the Hawks, ultimately they were outdone by the opposition.

The Nighthawks trailed by as many as 13 points in the second half, and a dozen in the fourth quarter, before coming back to force overtime, and eventually double OT, then finally succumbing to visiting Notre Dame-Fairfield 79-74 in the semifinals on February 24.

Second-seeded Newtown hit 11 3-pointers, including Haley Ryan’s buzzer-beater to force OT tied at 55. Newtown’s Sarah Lynch tied the game at 63 when she drove to the rim, following a timeout, with three seconds left in the first overtime.

Kayla Croswell scored 24 points, 12 of which came in the second OT alone, and Taylor Ceballos had 22 for the third-seeded Lancers. Notre Dame advanced to play top-seeded New Fairfield in the Thursday, February 25 title game

Lynch poured in 24 points, Lauren Wilcox had 15, Mali Klorczyk and Ryan both scored 11, Kelly Merrick had six, and Olyvia Shaw added five for the Nighthawks. Lynch had seven assists and Shaw came away with three steals.

The Lancers led Newtown 47-37 after a mostly back-and-forth third quarter, and went ahead 52-40 before Newtown clawed back. A Lynch 3-pointer followed by Wilcox’s 3-point play the old-fashioned way, with a basket and subsequent foul shot, got the Hawks to within 52-46 with 4:28 left. Merrick had blocked a shot and gotten a defensive rebound to set up the Wilcox basket.

Pressure defense by the Hawks led to a turnover and Shaw earning a trip to the foul line, where she hit one of two shots to make it 52-47. Then Klorczyk and Lynch created a double-team to force another turnover; Newtown didn’t score, but the message was clear: The Lancers were not going to have an easy time finishing off this game.

After a Notre Dame foul shot with 2:17 left, Merrick’s long-range basket trimmed the lead to 53-49 with 1:49 to go. The Lancers overcame a pair of traveling violations with a steal and offensive foul call against Newtown and, with 38 seconds left, Ceballos hit a pair of clutch free throws for a 55-49 lead. Only six seconds later, Klorczyk drained a 3-pointer to cut the lead in half.

The Nighthawks got the ball back with a chance to score, but Merrick had a shot blocked and Ryan missed a 3-pointer. After the Lancers were fouled and missed a chance to ice the game at the line with just four seconds left, Newtown called timeout. Out of the break, Lynch passed up a game-tying attempt and passed to Ryan who nailed the game-tying shot, releasing the ball just before time expired.

The Lancers led 60-56 in the first OT before Wilcox hit a 3-pointer with 2:10 remaining. Down 61-59, the Hawks evened the scored when Merrick took a nice bounce pass from Wilcox for an in-close hoop.

Notre Dame’s Raina Ceryak hit a go-ahead jumper with 33 seconds left, setting the stage for Lynch’s game-tying basket.

In double OT, Wilcox and Shaw both hit clutch one-and-one front end and backend foul shots to help the Hawks to a 69-66 lead. But the Lancers got the next 11 points as Croswell took over, converting twice off turnovers near half court, and Newtown couldn’t recover.

“We made every shot that we needed down the stretch — we made big shot after big shot. We just made some costly turnovers at the end,” said Newtown Coach Jeremy O’Connell, whose team will look to bounce back in the upcoming state tournament.

Newtown had advanced to the semifinal round with a comeback victory over No. 7 Immaculate of Danbury in the quarterfinals two days earlier. The Hawks trailed 16-9 at halftime before pouring in 23 points in the third quarter on the way to a 48-37 win.