One Step From Title Game — Girls Top Unbeaten Danbury For Spot In Semis

By Andy Hutchison

DANBURY — It’s often said in sports that to be the best you have to beat the best. Newtown High School’s girls’ basketball team has beaten the top team in the state bracket — but still has some work to do to claim the crown. Newtown took a big step toward earning the distinction as the top team in the Class LL state tournament with a win over top-ranked Danbury, in the Hat City, on March 5.

The ninth-seeded Nighthawks shocked the previously unbeaten Hatters, 60-47 in the tourney quarterfinals. Interestingly, the Nighthawks are in position to defeat yet another “best” team, yet still have work to do to reach the pinnacle. Now comes a clash with defending Class L champion Hillhouse of New Haven, which stepped up to Class LL this winter and is the tourney’s No. 5 seed.

Newtown and Hillhouse will battle on Friday, March 9 — at Sheehan High in Wallingford at 6 pm — for the right to play in the championship game a week later.

The semifinal round appearance is made possible, in large part, by the efforts of Newtown captains Jess Lynch, Riley Wurtz, and Bridget Power — all of whom recorded double-digit point nights. Lynch led the way with 17 points, Wurtz had 14, and Power added a dozen.

The Nighthawks, the defending South-West Conference champions, were eliminated in this year’s SWC tourney quarterfinals. Three Class LL wins later and they are one step away from a state championship game berth.

“It feels great. After a rough loss in SWCs we didn’t want it to be our last, so we’re all playing our hardest,” Wurtz said.

The Hatters were without their top player, Casey Smith, who went down with an anterior cruciate ligament tear late in the year, but got 25 points from Rebecca Gartner. Danbury went on to capture the FCIAC title without Smith, but had its state title dreams broken by Newtown’s pressing defense and fast-break, transition offense.

“They’re a great team — they’ve been a great team all year. Unfortunate circumstances for Casey Smith to go down and get injured because … she’s one of the best players in the state,” Newtown Coach Jeremy O’Connell said. “The chips fall as they may and we came out and played well.”

Newtown’s coach noted that his team’s up-tempo style resulted in some tired Danbury legs down the stretch — and that’s the style of play he is confident will wear down any opponent in Newtown’s path.

The game was close until the fourth quarter. Newtown opened up a 45-36 lead after three, but held only a five-point advantage, 45-40, early in the fourth before going on a 6-0 spurt and closing out the game on a 15-7 run. Maddy Good cut to the basket to take a pass and scored, despite being fouled, for a 47-40 lead. A Newtown steal led to Wurtz’s layup for a nine-point cushion, and Cassie Ekstrom sank a pair of free throws to make it a double-digit lead.

Newtown led 26-23 at halftime as Wurtz and Erin Kenning came up with late-second quarter 3-pointers and Power earned a 3-point play the old-fashioned way. With the game even at 23, Power — who wears uniform No. 23 — pulled down a rebound on the defensive end and went coast to coast — put on a 360 spin move — and banked home a shot while being fouled, and sank the ensuing free throw with eight seconds remaining in the half.

The Hatters scored the first five points of the second half for a 28-26 advantage, but NHS erased the slim deficit and went ahead — in a matter of seconds —for good. Lynch scored off the fast-break to tie the game and Wurtz followed with a pull-up jumper for a 30-28 Newtown lead. The Nighthawks built their third-quarter lead behind a combination of big plays on defense and big shots. Power and Ekstrom drew charges, and Ekstrom had a steal that led to a Wurtz basket to help thwart the Hatters and spark a 15-6 run to close out the third.

The Nighthawks had advanced to the quarterfinals with a solid effort — and similar outcome — against the host Trumbull Eagles, on March 1. Newtown opened up a late lead and rolled to victory behind clutch shooting down the stretch. With Wurtz, the team’s point guard, in third-quarter foul trouble, it looked as if the Hawks might be in trouble as a close game approached the finish line. Unfortunately for the Eagles, the Nighthawks have plenty of weapons. The Hawks came together and prevailed 57-48 in the Class LL second-round game.

Newtown came up with timely shot after timely shot down the stretch to pull away in a battle of evenly-matched teams that each won 17 regular season tilts.

Wurtz, the team’s leader, committed her fourth foul late in the third quarter and sat for much of the fourth before returning to help ice the win with clutch free throws. Her teammates stepped up to turn a tie game into a pretty big lead by the midpoint of the fourth quarter. Newtown went on a 12-0 run, which began late in the third, to build a ten-point cushion.

Kenning’s jump shot knotted the score at 39 apiece in the waning seconds of the third. Lynch broke a 39-39 tie with a bucket down low to get the fourth-quarter scoring going. Moments later, Kenning converted a 3-point play with a basket and foul shot — prompting one of many fist pumps from the excitable O’Connell. It was 44-39 NHS with 6:57 to play. A Trumbull timeout couldn’t stop the bleeding. Ekstrom buried a 3-pointer from the corner to extend the lead to eight and the Nighthawks continued to play strong defense as the final period unfolded. Kenning’s pull-up shot on the fast break capped the run.

“It feels great to know you have your whole team behind you,” Wurtz said.

O’Connell believes Wurtz sitting and the team playing well had a positive carryover effect into the next game. “I think that gave our whole team a lot of confidence. Everybody has confidence when Riley’s on the floor. That was the first pressure time when we had to play that Riley wasn’t — and everyone stepped up, and I think that’s given our younger kids and everyone, actually, the confidence to say ‘hey, we’re really good with Riley and we’re really good if she needs to take a rest for a little bit,’” O’Connell said.

The Eagles got to within seven but Wurtz — back in the game for the final minutes — was intentionally fouled on consecutive Newtown possessions and promptly put four points on the scoreboard for a 53-42 lead to effectively end the game. Power, Good, and Sam Steimle all contributed significantly in the hard-fought win, and Carly Iwanicki put in several solid minutes in the win over Danbury.

Newtown High School Athletic Director Gregg Simon notes that this is NHS girls’ basketball program’s first state semifinal round appearance since back in 1989. The team, nicknamed the Indians then, fell to Southington in triple overtime.

Whether or not this semifinal round clash is as close remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure: The Nighthawks expect a tough game with Hillhouse. Whichever team comes out on top faces the winner of No. 6 Manchester and No. 10 Mercy March 16 or 17 at Mohegan Sun Arena (updates on casciac.org).

“They’re going to be good, but I think we’re pretty good too — so I think it’s going to be a great game,” Wurtz said of the matchup with Hillhouse, which posted an 18-2 record in the regular campaign.

“We’re going to have to be disciplined, we’re going to have to make sure we finish, and we have to rebound. If we rebound, we finish, and we’re disciplined — we can beat anyone,” O’Connell added.