Girls Overcome Loss To Pomperaug With Strong Defensive Effort

By Andy Hutchison

Jeremy O’Connell said a win over Pomperaug of Southbury would be a strong indicator that his team is where it needs to be. Pomperaug, after all, has only lost to Lauralton Hall of Milford — a team that is unbeaten in South-West Conference play and hasn’t been dealt a setback since December. Well, the Newtown High School girls’ basketball team came up a little bit short — falling 62-54 on the road on February 3 — but the coach still got plenty of encouragement that his team can be a threat in the postseason.

“We’re even with them. They just came out and didn’t miss in the first quarter — and then, after that, it was an even game,” O’Connell said. “We cut it to two or four, but couldn’t get over that hump.”

The Panthers outscored Newtown 24-14 in first and the Nighthawks got to within 35-30 by halftime and hung close in the second half. They lost only their third game, and second in conference play, despite 23 points by Riley Wurtz, 15 from Jess Lynch, and seven from Bridget Power.

“They’re an excellent team. They’re going to be fun to play in the playoffs,” said O’Connell, anticipating a possible rematch in the SWC tournament.

NHS is 15-3 and, if things unfold as O’Connell expects, his Hawks will earn the conference’s third seed and — with a quarterfinal round win — would face No. 2 Pomperaug in the SWC semifinals … likely for the right to face top-seeded Lauralton. If Newtown and Lauralton meet in the title game it will be a rematch of last year’s SWC finale, won by NHS. First things first — Newtown has to close out the regular season with a pair of remaining regular-slate tilts on tap. Newtown will visit Joel Barlow of Redding on Friday, February 10, and close out the campaign at home against New Milford on Valentine’s Day. Then, the conference playoffs begin with quarterfinal round action on February 18.

O’Connell was pleased with the way his team rebounded — in more ways than one — from the setback to the Panthers as Newtown defeated visiting New Fairfield 54-18.

“Tonight we did a very good job hitting the boards,” the coach said of his team’s rebounding prowess against New Fairfield.

Newtown limited New Fairfield to just two first-quarter points and opened up a 20-2 second-period advantage en route to cruising to an easy victory. Newtown scored 25 points in the second quarter alone, capped by Erin Kenning’s bank shot 3-pointer just before the half. Jess Lynch led the way with 14 points, Wurtz had an even dozen, Power scored nine, Kenning finished with seven, and Cassie Ekstrom added six. Newtown used quick one-touch passes to keep the defense on its heels and contributions came from starters and players off the bench alike.

The Rebels are only 6-12 overall, and Newtown improved to 15-3 this winter, but O’Connell couldn’t help but be impressed that his squad held the Rebels in the teens for the first time this campaign.

“I thought tonight — more than anything — we communicated on defense,” O’Connell said. “And that’s something that’s been lacking the last couple of weeks — and that’s definitely a step in the right direction for when we get around to the end of the season and playoff time.”

The Hawks generate a lot of their points off the fast-break, out-running the opposition. That style of play is made possible by strong defensive play.

“We need to be communicating because our offense feeds off our defense. So if we’re playing defense like we did tonight we can be pretty successful,” O’Connell said.