Oh yeah, the Nighthawks – led mainly by Mike Troy (39 points) and Andrew Fiscella (16 points) – found many, many unoccupied pathways to the basket on Monday night and ripped South Windsor, 83-69, in the first round of the CIAC Class L state tournament.

The win earned the ‘Hawks a trip to Newington on Wednesday (after press time).

The ‘Hawks were a little late getting to class (falling into a quick 5-2 hole), but when Troy scored on his first drive to the hoop, Fiscella scored on his first drive to the hoop, and Dave Anderson scored on his first drive to the hoop the ‘Hawks were well on their way to securing a second-round game.

It was an explosive first period, with the ‘Hawks taking a 26-19 lead. Troy – making the last home game of his high school career – scored 14 points in the opening eight minutes.

The scoring slowed down a little in the second period, but the ‘Hawks continued to attack the basket. Marcus Tracy pulled the first inside move of the quarter and added a free throw to get things moving. A couple of fast breaks (Tracy and Anderson made those work with a couple of superb outlet passes) and a couple of baseline drives (Tom Ryan scored his first basket on one of those) put the ‘Hawks up by nine. Fiscella finished the half off with a slick drive down the lane and the locals went into the locker room with a 43-32 lead.

South Windsor sent a little jolt into the crowd at the start of the third with a three-pointer and then a follow-up jumper, but the ‘Hawks managed to keep their lead hovering around 10 points until about midway through the period.

Then the ‘Hawks started to pull away.

Troy hit another inside basket and then Anderson added a drive and a foul shot. When Tracy banked in a nifty reverse layup (off a magnificent pass from Troy) the ‘Hawks were staked to their largest lead of the game, 58-41. South Windsor managed to whittle the lead back down to 10 points, but Troy and Anderson both hit baskets to close the period with Newtown holding a 62-48 lead.

Troy continued to batter the South Windsor defense in the fourth period (scoring 13 more points and Ryan tossed in a basket off an inbounds post play to spark the Newtown offense. Ryan Tracy and Chris Larocque (his with just :03 on the clock) got into the act with baskets of their own.

The 17-6 Nighthawks – seeded ninth in Class L – traveled to Newington (#8) on Wednesday (after press time).

NOTE: Mike Troy’s 39-point effort was fifth-highest in school history and highest since John Fiscella scored 40 in 2000. Ken Berglund owns the single-game record, scoring 56 back in 1954. And in 1952, Marv Shreders torched the hoops for 44 and 40 points.

South Windsor        69

Newtown                                83

 

SOUTH WINDSOR (69): Wilson 4 0-0 9, Kapisak 7 3-6 21, Wilkinson 7 5-8 19, Gordon 6 3-8 15, Hood 0 1-2 1, Williams 0 0-0 0, Waxerberg 1 0-0 3, Hornat 0 1-2 1. Totals: 25 13-26 69.

NEWTOWN (83): Troy 15 9-12 39, M. Tracy 2 3-3 7, Ryan 3 1-3 7, Fiscella 6 4-5 16, Anderson 4 2-5 10, R. Tracy 1 0-0 2, Larocque 1 0-0 2, Quinn 0 0-0 0, Shimko 0 0-0 0. Totals: 32 19-28 83.

Three-pointers: Wilson (SW), Kapisak (SW) 4, Waxerberg (SW).