Boys’ Cagers Battle But Fall To Hartford Public

By Andy Hutchison

Newtown High School’s boys’ basketball team saw its season come to an end in the first round of the Class LL state tournament on Tuesday night — but the heavy underdog Nighthawks put up a pretty big battle against an undefeated foe. The No. 30 Nighthawks led after one quarter and hung close at halftime before falling 79-52 to No. 3 and host Hartford Public, one of three LL schools with a perfect 20-0 mark this past campaign.

“I was proud of the effort,” said Newtown Coach John Quinn, whose Hawks carried a 16-11 lead into the second quarter and were within four at halftime before the game slipped away in the third.

Led by 6-foot-8 Ebraiham Jallow, who scored 23 points, Hartford Public outscored Newtown 27-10 in the game-changing third quarter. “They just wore us down,” said Quinn, explaining that the host team’s press proved to be too much for the Nighthawks.

Newtown had two players in double digits as senior Kyle Wilcox and junior Connor Quinn dropped in 19 and 15, respectively. Coach Quinn was pleased with how Mike Davis, who gives up about five inches to Jallow, guarded the Hartford Public standout. Jallow scored many of his points in transition, the NHS coach added.

Newtown will lose three seniors — captains Wilcox, Taylor Steimle, and David Lucia — this year, and the trio will be missed, Coach Quinn notes. “I don’t think we had a bad practice because of their personality,” he said. “I’m going to miss them a lot for that.”

This campaign, which ended with a 9-11 regular season, was a mostly rebuilding one for the Hawks, who had few players with substantial prior varsity exposure on the floor. Several up-and-coming players, including Quinn and Mike Daubert, had breakout seasons, and Coach Quinn looks forward to the emergence of the younger players with as many as 12 with at least some varsity experience set to be back in the fold. “I’m very optimistic about next year,” he said.