NHS Boys’ Basketball Team Falls In States—

Stamford High Too Big Of A Hurdle For Resilient Newtown Nighthawks

By Andy Hutchison

STAMFORD — The Newtown High School boys’ basketball team successfully overcame obstacles throughout the season to earn a trip to the state playoffs. On Monday night, the Nighthawks knew they had their toughest hill in the form of an opponent to overcome in the first round of the Class LL State Tournament. Newtown, the bracket’s No. 28 seed, was a heavy underdog against No. 5 Stamford and that hill got even harder to climb when the host Black Knights jumped out to a 19-0 lead. Stamford went on to win 81-50 to advance to the second round of the tourney.

The Black Knights used a tenacious full-court press to create turnovers and capitalized on their height and reach advantage to get easy layups and second-chance tap-in baskets to build the early lead. Newtown fell behind by as much as 21 in the first quarter before making some adjustments to spark a small glimmer of hope.

The Nighthawks switched to a zone defense and managed to cut the deficit to 14 points in the third quarter behind sharp 3-point shooting.

“We just tried to chip away a little at a time,” Newtown senior captain Kurt Nacewicz said. “I think we played hard — that’s a good team right there.”

The Nighthawks went 8-12 in the regular campaign, earning just enough wins to qualify for the state tourney and Stamford went 18-2. Nacewicz and Newtown Coach John Quinn pointed that Stamford is one of the best teams in the state. But the Nighthawks did not go down without a fight, even after finding themselves in huge early hole.

“The trademark of a good player, a good team, is a team that never quits and these kids never stopped playing hard in spite of being down 19 to 0,” Quinn said.

Marc Guirand scored 25 points to lift Stamford. Nacewicz led Newtown with 13 points, Kyle Kromberg added 8, Josh Engler had 7, and Dan Quinn scored 5.

Nacewicz said the Hawks boxed out and started to handle the pressure better as the game went on.

“We did start to box out and [the Black Knights] were missing some shots too, so that allowed us to get back into it a little bit,” Coach Quinn added.

But Newtown’s comeback effort was too little too late.

“They elevate that much higher and they’re that much longer,” Coach Quinn said. “It’s absolutely okay to get your you-know-what kicked by a great team.”

The Nighthawks began the season with an entirely new starting lineup from a year ago, then had to rebound from player suspensions midway through the campaign to earn a spot in the postseason.

“We had a lot of adversity to overcome,” NHS senior captain Kurt Nacewicz said. “At the end of the day it’s all about playing basketball.”

“We had some issues throughout the year. We played with a lot of sophomores and juniors throughout the entire year. We were competitive in every one of our games that we played this year. We had a chance to win every one — until today,” Coach Quinn said. “So that’s a testament to the seniors and it’s a testament to the potential and the upside that I see from the kids in the locker room. We’re going to be good — we’re going to be good.”

The Nighthawks will miss their seniors, Engler, a sophomore, said.

“Kurt’s one of the best point guards in the league, Dan Quinn is one of the best shooters in the league and Ian Cooper’s one of the fastest big men in the league,” Engler said.

“We are definitely going to be competitive next year,” Engler added.