What a state playoff run for the underdogs from Newtown High School. The No. 21 seed in the Division II boys' basketball bracket, the Nighthawks have gone on the road and upset No. 12 Ledyard 66-61, No. 5 Pomperaug of Southbury 66-56, and No. 13 Wilton 57-54 in overtime. Newtown earned a berth in the state's D-II bracket's March Madness Final Four, a semifinal-round meeting with No. 9 Amity of Woodbridge, at neutral site Shelton High, on Wednesday, March 14, beginning at 7 pm.

Another win on the dark road uniforms means the Hawks would earn a spot in the championship game against either No. 2 Immaculate of Danbury or No. 6 Glastonbury. Heading into the middle of the week both Newtown and Amity were hoping to make a trip to Mohegan Sun Arena for the pinnacle battle, Saturday, March 17 at 8:30 pm.

Regardless of whether this ride ends in the semis or finals, it has certainly been a successful one for the Nighthawks.

Newtown has turned the tables on a pair of foes it lost to during the regular season. The Hawks fell 62-40 to Wilton back on December 27, and had lost 67-59 to Pomperaug on February 9.

After the second-round win over Pomperaug, when asked what the keys to the turnaround were, Newtown Coach Tim Tallcouch pulled notes out of his pocket that detailed areas in which the Nighthawks struggled in the first meeting and talked about how they improved in the rematch by doing a better job of contesting shots.

Another key to this playoff success has been the emergence of Newtown's younger players. They start a sophomore - point guard Riley Ward, whom Tallcouch describes as effectively not being a sophomore anymore due to the experience of this long season - and two juniors, Todd Petersen and Robert DiSibio. A bulk of the roster came into the campaign with minimal varsity experience.

"It took time for us to evolve as a team," Tallcouch said following the quarterfinal-round win over Wilton on March 12.

Newtown might not have gone so deep into the tourney if not for making good use of a week-plus of time off between elimination from the South-West Conference tournament and the start of states.

Tallcouch said scrimmaging two Division I squads, Crosby of Waterbury (13 regular-season wins) and Trumbull (15 wins), during a week-plus layoff from games benefited his team. The coach added that the Nighthawks held their own in the scrimmages, which kept them sharp during the time away from game action.

"Difficult to just practice versus JVs day in and day out, so you reach out to higher-level competition who are in the same boat. It allowed us to refocus and stay sharp. Plus we held our own in both scrimmages, which only feeds you going into state," Tallcouch said.