Newtown High School's boys' basketball team is hopeful of qualifying for the postseason and is embarking on an important part of the schedule this week. The Nighthawks went into Wednesday's 7 pm game at New Fairfield (rescheduled from Tuesday because of weather) with an overall record of 3-9, but a South-West Conference mark of 3-3.

If the Nighthawks are going to qualify for the playoffs, they may need to pick up wins against some of the teams they face in the next week or so.

"We're still sitting pretty," Newtown Coach Tim Tallcouch said. "We're going to find out where we stand in the next three games. I think we're right in the hunt for an SWC playoff berth."

New Fairfield came into the week with a 2-3 mark in SWC play. On Friday, February 3, at 7 pm, they'll host a Masuk lineup that entered into the week 0-5 in SWC play, but that defeated Newtown in an early-season nonconference battle that went down to the wire, and the Hawks will visit a 2-4 New Milford team on Tuesday, February 7.

The remainder of the schedule includes very strong Pomperaug of Southbury, Notre Dame-Fairfield, and Bethel teams that had combined for 15 conference wins thus far, as well as Stratford, which has one victory in SWC play, and nonconference opponent Torrington.

Newtown has proven it can play well against solid competition, as evidenced by the first two quarters of its game against visiting Weston, on January 27. The Hawks were down just one point, 27-26, at halftime, before seeing the Trojans double their point total in the third quarter en route to a 71-44 triumph, to improve to 4-2 in conference play and 9-4 overall.

Tallcouch called three timeouts during the third quarter, but the Hawks couldn't find a way to slow down the opposition.

"I think in the first half we played with our foot on the gas," said Tallcouch, adding that Weston came out of the break much stronger, especially early in the third quarter. "They wanted it more than we did in the first four minutes. We have to learn from this that we need to play committed, focused, determined basketball and can't take anything for granted."

Evan Eggleston led Newtown with 15 points, Derek Ivey scored 11, Sam Grossano and Tom Skrelja dropped in seven and five, respectively, and Tucker Garrity added four. Ivey pulled down ten rebounds, and Garrity, Tom Cotton, and Grossano had four, three, and two steals, respectively.

The Nighthawks were without an injured Nick Weiland for the Weston game.

Tallcouch believes his up-and-coming players have potential to do good things not only in years to come, but this season as well.

"We have young kids that are going to be very good basketball players," he anticipates. "They practice hard, they listen, they're ready to play."