The picture on our front page this week is a classic portrait of champions — hearts racing, index fingers extended, and just one emotion, ear-to-ear. A moment in time preserved. There is no picture, however, of the moment when the Newtown High School Girls Basketball team became the true champions of Connecticut’s Class LL schools.

That moment came one week before the photo you see here, in the team’s semifinal win on March 9 in Wallingford. It was late in the first half, and the Nighthawks were trailing Hillhouse, a traditional powerhouse in Connecticut high school basketball, 34-15. Nearly eight minutes elapsed at one point with the Nighthawks scoring just two points. It was beginning to look like a rout. It was the point when nonchampions start to rationalize their plight, congratulating themselves for having made it so far, and consoling each other that there is no shame to losing to the Hillhouse juggernaut. The Newtown girls weren’t having any of that. They had come too far together to settle for consolations.

As senior captain Riley Wurtz told a reporter earlier, after the team’s stunning upset of undefeated and top-ranked Danbury in the quarterfinals, “We’ve all been playing together for 15 years, and this is our last chance for something great.”

In that lowest of low moments in the Hillhouse game, this particular team — out on the floor and up and down the bench — wasn’t rationalizing anything. They pressed down harder than ever, even though the odds were piling up against them. They knew at their core something great was waiting for them on the other side of improbability. In that moment they became champions.

We congratulate them all on a great season for their team and school, and thank them for such moments of true inspiration for the rest of us.