By Kim J. Harmon

Tenacious defense.

Speed, speed and more speed.

A deep, deep bench.

Those are three things – all in evidence on Tuesday night – that could turn a potentially tough South-West Conference girls’ basketball game between Newtown (14-2) and Bethel (11-5) into a blowout.

For certain, fans arriving at the game expected to see a relatively tight battle. Bethel, under coach John Simone, is a rising team in the SWC with one of the area’s leading scorers in Kerri Kaylor (18.3 points per game). And when the Lady Wildcats went ahead 4-0 in the first few moments of the first period, those expectations were gaining a whole lot of validity.

So what went wrong?

Well, aside from the fact that Bethel had enormous trouble shooting (Kaylor was held to just 10 points on the night), it was the Newtown defense which all but shut down Bethel, allowing no points in the third quarter and only two field goals in the entire second half.

A 4-0 deficit soon turned into 15-8 lead for the ‘Hawks at the end of the first period, a 29-18 lead at the end of the first half, and a 45-18 lead at the end of the third quarter. If garbage time hadn’t gotten so sloppy for the ‘Hawks, the Lady Wildcats might not have gotten as close as they did at the end, 49-33.

The ‘Hawks got some strong games from Lisa Masella (10 points) and Jayme Beckham (10 points) and Morgan Haines (six points, but beautiful defense on Kaylor). But its strongest effort, perhaps, came from Lori Iwanicki who turned in a double-double with 10 points, 12 rebounds, and five assists (three of those in the first quarter as Newtown went on an 11-0 run to erase a small deficit and take a commanding lead).

Then again, everyone played well. From Kate Ryan, Ally Gellert and Lauren Adamek to Mary Bell and Jessica Oswald, who saw her first action in several games. The five of them combined for 13 points, but that was only a small measure of what they did on the court.

Turning It Around

Bethel quickly took a 4-0 lead and appeared as if it was completely ready to play with Newtown, the Colonial Division front-runner. But Masella and Ryan both scored baskets in the post (off assists from Iwanicki) and the game was just as quickly tied, 4-4.

Then Beckham, who came in off the bench, almost single-handedly turned the game around by driving the lane (getting battered in the process) and scoring a pair of baskets. One of those she converted into a three-point play with the extra bonus of a foul.

With Haines canning a pair of free throws and Masella putting back a miss of her own foul shot, the ‘Hawks had finished up an 11-0 run that gave them a 15-6 lead just before the end of the first quarter. Without losing a step, Gellert drained her only field goal of the night – a three pointer from the corner that put Newtown ahead, 18-8.

Moments later, Beckham pulled another one of her power moves to the basket, scoring the hoop and converting a foul. Near the end of the first half, Oswald got back into the scorebook after a long absence with a putback in the post.

The ‘Hawks had a 29-18 lead heading into the break.

Any thoughts about the possibility of Bethel making a comeback, though, were erased in an explosive third quarter that was fueled almost entirely through the persistent (and exceedingly determined) defense of the Lady Nighthawks.

It was a wild scene, in fact, in that third quarter. On a few occasions there were bodies littered all over the gymnasium floor in mad scrambles for loose balls and this despite the fact that the Newtown lead was climbing steadily from 15 to 19 to 21 . . . and onwards up to 27 points.

The ‘Hawks outscored the Lady Wildcats 16-0 in the third quarter, taking a 45-18 lead at the end of period, and dignifying the final eight minutes of the contest as garbage time.

Garbage time did get rough for the ‘Hawks, though, who scored just one field goal in the final quarter – that on a long range bomb from Oswald. The ‘Hawks only other points came from the free throw line, with Iwanicki canning a pair there.

Bethel outscored Newtown, 15-4, in the quarter to putting a better face on the final score but, still, only managed a pair of field goals (one of was a three-pointer from Sarah Wax) and did the rest of the damage from the foul line.

The win pushed Newtown’s record to 15-2 overall, 12-1 in the SWC, and leaving them firmly in first in the Colonial Division. A tough schedule still remains for the ‘Hawks, who travel to Milford on Friday night to take on Jonathan Law and then go back to Milford on Monday for a game with Lauralton Hall.

The regular seasons schedule will conclude on Wednesday, February 16, against Foran.

The SWC playoffs – where the ‘Hawks figure to be the No. 2 seed – will start on Saturday, February 19, at Bunnell. The semi-finals will be on Tuesday, February 22, at Pomperaug with the finals to follow on Friday, February 25, also at Pomperaug.

NOTE: There will be a raffle on February 16, when Newtown is home against Foran, for two tickets to see the Big East Women’s quarter-final game featuring the University of Connecticut.

 

BETHEL        8   10    0  15 - 33

NEWTOWN   15   14   18    4 - 49

 

BETHEL (33): Bartholomew 3 3-4 9, Gonzalez 0 0-0 0, K. Bartholomew 2 1-3 5, Kaylor 4 2-3 10, Daluz 0 0-0 0, Wax 1 6-6 9, Zowine 0 0-0 0, Moros 0 0-0 0, Wallace 0 0-0 0, McDougal 0 0-0 0, V. Gonzalez 0 0-0 0. Totals: 10 12-18 33.

NEWTOWN (49): Ryan 1 0-0 2, Oswald 2 0-0 4, Adamek 1 0-0 2, Beckham 4 2-2 10, Gellert 1 0-0 3, Iwanicki 3 4-4 10, Bell 0 2-2 2, Masella 5 0-2 10, Haines 2 2-2 6. Totals: 19 10-12 49.

Three-pointers: Gellert (N), Wax (B)