Newtown High School's boys' basketball team overcame a seven-point deficit heading to the fourth quarter and defeated visiting New Milford 52-50 on February 6. The win comes two days following a hard-fought 54-53 loss to Immaculate of Danbury.

The Nighthawks trailed for most of the night and were behind 39-32 heading to the fourth quarter. Jack Petersen's steal and basket cut New Milford's lead to a point at 45-44 with 2:05 left.

Riley Ward answered a pair of New Milford foul shots with a straightaway 3-pointer to knot the score at 47-47 with 1:39 remaining.

Down two points, the Hawks seized their first lead since 8-7 in the first when Joe McCray drained a 3-pointer with 1:01 left, making it 50-49. Ward added a couple of clutch foul shots, including a front-end one and one with 24 seconds left, and the Hawks held on.

Petersen and McCray both scored 15 and Ward had 13 to lead Newtown. Liam O'Connell added five and Jack Mulligan tacked on four in the victory.

Newtown Coach Tim Tallcouch thought his team struggled against New Milford's 2-3 zone defense and believed his team was a bit sluggish, possibly in part due to having just played a tense, close game against a strong Immaculate team that is unbeaten in conference play.

"These types of games, good teams find ways to win and that's what we did," Tallcouch said. "The kids believed in the huddle. They never thought they were going to lose this game"

Up next for NHS is a Tuesday, February 11 visit to Masuk of Monroe at 7 pm.