By Kim J. Harmon

There are always questions heading into a new season and the Newtown High School girls’ basketball team, like any other, had some questions that needed answering.

Foremost in the mind of head coach Shawn O’Brien was the question, “Are Morgan Knees and Katie Condon ready to take a step up?”

And the two juniors answered in the affirmative – and emphatically so. In wins over Lauralton Hall (49-45) and Joel Barlow (58-50) in the Newtown Tip-Off Classic last week, Knees dominated down low and tossed in 35 points in the two games while Condon was solid at the guard position and tossed in 25 points with the aid of four three-pointers.

“The juniors have come on quickly,” said O’Brien. “Condon and Knees are solid basketball players and a great compliment to our three seniors.”

In the win over Hall last Wednesday, as the three-pointers were raining down from the rafters (11 all told), Knees had a relatively quiet 14 points. And in the win over Barlow, after a dismal first quarter in which she missed four free throws and a couple of bunnies, Knees absolutely dominated by scoring 21 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.

“I was missing a lot of shots early,” said Knees, “but I focused on what we did in practice and they just started falling.”

Condon – who saw time only sparingly last year – canned 12 points in her first varsity start, draining a pair of three-pointers. Last Friday, she added a couple of more treys and 13 more points as she alternated between the one- and two-guard position.

Their performances were, as coach O’Brien said, the perfect compliment to the effort of the seniors – especially co-captain Christie Iwanicki, who popped in 17 points against Lauralton Hall and 12 more against Joel Barlow.

“The Shinall twins are two of the best players in the league,” said coach O’Brien, “and there may be a tendency to overlook Christie. But she is every bit as good.”

The five starters did yeoman work in the Tip-Off Tournament, spending most of their time on the floor and very little on the bench – the depth of which is another question the Lady Nighthawks need to answer.

But in the small amount of time Jen Brewer, Jordyn Good, Nora Lynn Shimko and Brittany Papaj spent on the floor, they performed well.

The win over Barlow did not come without some angst, as the ‘Hawks fell into a 14-4 hole in the first quarter before emerging with a 7-1 run to close out the opening stanza down 17-11.

“We were thinking we had the right game plan and just weren’t converting,” said coach O’Brien. “I felt it was going to work and got the kids to believe in it.”

Oh, they did.

With Condon hitting both of her three-pointers in the second period and Iwanicki bouncing a perfect feed to Knees, the ‘Hawks went up as much as 29-24 before the Lady Falcons staged a little rally of their own to take a 31-29 lead midway through the third.

The locals were down as much as five points in the third, but rallied again when Iwanicki scored five consecutive points to tie the game 36-36 at the close of the third.

Brewer made a strong defensive play at the end of the period, tying up a loose ball and forcing the ‘jump.’

In the fourth, Iwanicki twisted her ankle early and spent more than three minutes on the bench. In that time, the ‘Hawks went up as much as four but then lost the lead when Jenn Shinall canned one of her five three-pointers on the night.

Darcy Fiscella, though, canned a basket that put the locals up for good ... right before Iwanicki returned to the floor.

The ‘Hawks coasted home from there.

Newtown 49, Lauralton Hall 45

LAURALTON HALL (45): Kelly D’Ambrisi 3 0-0 8, Laura Discenza 3 2-3 8, Morgan Dunne 1 0-0 2, Kathleen Flaherty 4 0-0 8, Keylantra Langley 2 0-2 5, Bridget O’Donnell 3 0-4 6, Molly Yardley 3 0-0 8. TOTALS: 19 2-9 45.

NEWTOWN (49): Jen Brewer 0 0-0 0, Christie Iwanicki 5 4-7 17, Jordyn Good 0 0-0 0, Nora Lynn Shimko 0 0-0 0, Darcy Fiscella 1 0-6 3, Kristi Nowak 1 1-2 3, Brittany Papaj 0 0-0 0, Morgan Knees 6 2-2 14, Katie Condon 3 4-5 12. TOTALS: 16 11-22 49.

Three-pointers: Iwanicki (N) 3, Condon (N) 2, D’Ambrisi (LH) 2, Yardley (LH) 2, Fiscella (N), Langley (LH).

Newtown 58, Joel Barlow 50

JOEL BARLOW (50): Kristin Hanczor 5 1-4 11, Jenn Shinall 6 0-1 17, Brenna Regan 0 0-0 0, Jacqueline Shinall 4 4-4 12, Melissa Touma 2 3-4 8, Sarah Urban 1 0-1 2, Allee Beatty 0 0-1 0. TOTALS: 18 8-15 50.

NEWTOWN (58): Jen Brewer 0 0-0 0, Jordyn Good 0 0-2 0, Christie Iwanicki 3 6-10 12, Nora Lynn Shimko 1 0-0 2, Darcy Fiscella 1 3-6 5, Kristi Nowak 2 1-2 5, Morgan Knees 9 3-8 21, Katie Condon 4 3-4 13. TOTALS: 20 16-32 58.

Three-pointers: Je. Shinall (JB) 5, Condon (N) 2, Touma (JB).