With a schedule front-loaded with tough opponents, members of Newtown High School’s girls’ basketball team certainly expected a difficult start to the season. After defeating Danbury 55-37 in the December 15 opener, the Nighthawks were beaten 48-33 by St Joseph of Trumbull on December 17, and 71-27 by Saddle River Day School of New Jersey two nights later. Newtown bounced back for a 56-50 victory over Hillhouse of New Haven, on December 21.

“It really is a test to see what the season has in store,” Newtown captain Mali Klorczyk said after the defeat to St Joes — a state champion a year ago that lost nine players to graduation but again has high expectations.

Things started out well enough, with Newtown dominating a Danbury team that, a year ago, had a record of 9-11.

“We got the ball rolling early. We used our defensive energy on the offensive end,” Klorczyk said of the victory.

Newtown Coach Jeremy O’Connell saw two versions of his team in the first couple of games, both of which took place at Newtown High.

“We had effort, intensity, we showed up — got after it,” O’Connell said of the performance against Danbury, a game in which Olyvia Shaw had a team-high eight steals, along with eight rebounds, to help set the tone. Newtown drained ten 3-pointers in the opener as Klorczyk sank four shots from downtown to account for a dozen of her 23 points; and Haley Ryan drained a trio of treys.

Then came the St Joes game. The Nighthawks, held to one field goal for the first four-plus minutes of the contest, eventually fell behind 16-8 in the second quarter before making a comeback. Katie Reilly converted a 3-point play after taking a bounce pass from Haiely Conrad down low; Rylee Mulligan, following a defensive rebound, went coast to coast to earn a trip to the foul line, and hit one shot; and Nicole DaPra’s jumper tied the score.

The Cadets got the last four points of the first half, capped by a rebound and off-balance buzzer-beater by Megan Robertson.

The late second-quarter momentum for St Joes seemed to spill over after halftime as the Cadets doubled their point total in the third quarter alone, building a 40-24 advantage heading to the fourth.

Down 22-16, Newtown cut the deficit to just three on Klorczyk’s 3-pointer from the corner, but then St Joes went on a 10-0 run and never looked back.

“Tonight, we showed what we need to improve upon,” said O’Connell, who got a team-high ten points from Klorczyk and five apiece from Mulligan, Conrad, and Ryan.

The Newtown coach credited St Joes Coach Chris Lindwall for finding a way to have his players take Newtown away from its defensive-minded style of play.

“He always has his team well-disciplined. They took us out of what we wanted to do, and we couldn’t find ways to respond,” O’Connell said.

Of course, one could argue the Hawks ran into the wrong team on the wrong day. St Joes also let an eight-point deficit slip away against Pomperaug of Southbury two days earlier, but lost the game.

“Yesterday in practice we really focused on how do we win these types of games,” Lindwall said. “We knew they were going to come at us.”

The Nighthawks, who pride themselves on tough, turnover-causing defense, applied the anticipated pressure on the Cadets. Lindwall’s squad didn’t break as it did in the opener, slicing its turnovers in half — they gave up the ball 31 times against Pomperaug and turned it over only 14 times against Newtown.

“We learned a lot from Tuesday night,” the St Joes coach said.

In their third game of the campaign, the Hawks took on a Saddle River team in a regular-season game for the third year in a row since the schools forged a relationship following 12/14. Saddle River first invited Newtown for a fundraising tournament and the teams have met annually, in part to raise money for hoops for an outdoor basketball court at the new Sandy Hook Elementary School.

“Saddle River is like family. That is more than just a game — it’s an event,” O’Connell said.

Newtown continued its basketball hoop fundraising efforts with its annual Threes For Charity Tournament, against yet another tough nonconference team, Hillhouse. O’Connell liked his team’s bounce-back effort, describing it as “a glimpse of what we could be as a team when everyone plays hard together.”

Newtown had three players in double figures as Klorczyk had a double-double with 17 points and 14 rebounds, Ryan scored 15 points, and Lauren Wilcox logged 11 points and nine rebounds. Shaw pulled down 14 rebounds and came away with seven steals.

The Threes For Charity tourney was slated to continue with a matchup against Class M state runner-up Cromwell, which defeated Pomperaug, which went 16-4 a year ago, on December 22.

The Haws will visit South-West Conference foe Masuk of Monroe on Saturday, January 2, beginning at 1 pm, and return home to face Weston on Tuesday, January 5, starting at 7 pm; then, Brookfield comes to town on Friday, January 8, for another 7 pm battle. Seven of the team’s first eight games are at Newtown High.