By Kim J. Harmon

WESTON – When the Nighthawks traveled down to Weston last Friday no one was expecting anything unusual to happen . . . but strangely enough something did.

Oh, it wasn’t that the ‘Hawks were beaten or anything. No, they handled the Lady Trojans pretty easily, earning a 50-15 win to push their 2000-2001 record to 4-0, 2-0 in the South-West Conference. But while keeping Weston buttoned down to just 15 points in a game is one thing, keeping the defensive pressure clean enough to not allow the Lady Trojans to take any free throws is quite another.

The ‘Hawks allowed just two points in the first period and none in the third period and through a full 32 minutes of action the Lady Trojans were 0-of-0 from the foul line.

It makes for a quick game.

Lisa Masella and Jayme Beckham led all scorers with 10 points apiece. Masella canned a pair of shots from the field and then went 6-of-10 from the line. Amanda Marsilio chipped in with eight points while Morgan Haines added seven.

Eight people got into the game for the ‘Hawks and all eight scored. Ally Gellert contributed six points while Kelley Haines and Lori Iwanicki chipped in with four points each. Lauren Adamek added three points of her own, as well.

At 4-0, the ‘Hawks were heading into another tough challenge on Thursday (after press time) as they hosted Kolbe-Cathedral of Bridgeport, the defending CIAC Class S state champion. Kolbe pushed its own record to 2-1 overall, 2-0 in the SWC with a 54-33 win over Stratford last week.

And next week the ‘Hawks head into the annual Masuk Holiday Tournament. After the preliminary game between Joel Barlow and Warren Harding at 6 pm, Newtown will tangle with Masuk at 8 pm.

This event will also feature a junior varsity tournament. In the preliminaries, the Joel Barlow and Harding jayvee squads will tussle at 1 pm on Wednesday while the Newtown and Masuk jayvee squads will tussle at 3 pm.

On Friday, the junior varsity consolation game will start at 1 pm with the junior varsity finals to follow at 3 pm. Then the varsity consolation game will be played at 6 pm with the varsity finals to follow at 8 pm.

Balanced Offense

Even with the return of Marsilio, the ‘Hawks remain a solidly-balanced offensive team in the 2000-01 season. Through the four games, not one player is averaging better than 10 points a game. Marsilio and Beckham lead the ‘Hawks, scoring 9.8 points a game, while Masella is second at 9.0 and Iwanicki (the only player to average double-figures last year) currently is third at 8.5

Nine players have taken to the floor for the ‘Hawks this season and all nine have scored.

All nine can score.

It’s that kind of balance which has made the ‘Hawks a hard team to defend.