By Kim J. Harmon

SOUTHBURY – It was just a minute or so into the second period and things were already looking a little bleak. Masuk held a 13-4 lead and Newtown was doing very little to help itself.

But then Jayme Beckham dropped in a 15-foot jump shot – the first good jumper of the game for the Lady Nighthawks – and that seemed to be the spark that ignited a fire . . . a fire that didn’t burn itself out until the ‘Hawks had soundly beaten the Pantherettes, 39-30, to advance to the South-West Conference championship game against New Fairfield.

“Maybe it was first half jitters,” Beckham said, “and we were thinking, wow, we’re really here. But once we got our legs under us, we started playing a lot better.”

Beckham’s jump-er started an 11-3 run that all but erased Masuk’s early lead. But with the Pantherettes up 16-15 and time ticking away in the second quarter, Katie Reynolds dropped in a long three-point basket with 35 seconds left in the half to put Masuk ahead 19-15.

With all the work the ‘Hawks put in to get close, it could have been a demoralizing shot.

But it wasn’t.

“It wasn’t really that surprising,” said Beckham, who finished the night with five points and three steals, “because we knew (Reynolds) could shoot from the outside. But even if it came at an inopportune time, we knew we had our adrenaline going and we knew we had the upper hand.”

Still, that adrenaline didn’t really kick in until the second half . . . but then it kicked in hard. Unable to run at all in the first half, the Lady Nighthawks – thanks to the defense as a whole and an unbelievable individual effort from Ally Gellert – literally ran away with the game.

“Coach Simon emphasized (at halftime) that the defense would win the game,” said Gellert, who had three steals (all in the fourth quarter) to go along with her three points, “so we just tried to hold them back and wait for our shots to fall.”

It looked as if their shots would begin to fall right away. Kate Ryan dropped in a short jumper to start things off in the third period, but Masuk answered right back. And with the ‘Hawks down 21-17 early in the third quarter, it was the defense that put the clamps on Masuk and allowed the offense to run wild. Newtown raced out to an 11-0 run (only one basket, Gellert’s three-pointer, was in a half-court offense . . . everything else was off the break) to take a commanding 28-21 lead.

Lori Iwanicki, who finished with 13 points, scored the first two hoops in the run. On the second basket, she took a pass from Morgan Haines on the fly and rolled it in and then returned the favor, feeding Haines on the fly. Haines later picked Reynold’s pocket and went down the floor for an acrobatic lay in that completed the 11-0 run.

Masuk finally broke the string, but Iwanicki added a basket from the corner to keep Newtown up by seven. After the Pantherettes grabbed one point back at the foul line, the defining moment of the ‘Hawks defensive effort came right near the end of the period.

With Masuk in its offensive end, Gellert forced a loose ball and then went sprawling to the floor to try and gain possession. All she could do, though, was scoop it to Beckham, who fired the ball to Lauren Adamek on the run, who pushed on a nice pass to Iwanicki for the layup and a 32-24 lead at the end of three.

“We played with a lot of energy in the second half,” coach Gregg Simon said. “Our defense really did it for us.”

Masuk inched close at the start of the fourth period, canning the opening basket, but Beckham answered with a nice drive to the hoop. Iwanicki then dropped in a foul shot to put Newtown ahead by nine, 35-26. At that point, Masuk couldn’t solve the Newtown defense and would only get two more buckets the rest of the way – with 4:09 left and, when the game was essentially over, at 1:08. Haines and Iwanicki finished up the Newtown scoring with buckets in the final 3:15.

The ‘Hawks also got a great effort from Lisa Masella, who scored six points but pulled down seven strong rebounds.

It was the second win for Newtown over Masuk this year and the ‘Hawks are hoping it provides a boost for their efforts against New Fairfield (52-24 winners over Bethel on Tuesday) in the SWC Championship game on Friday at Pomperaug.

“I think this definitely gives us a boost,” said Gellert. “We’re a different team than we were (the last time we played) and I think we’ll be a little more confident.”

Back on January 11, the ‘Hawks fell to the Rebels, 60-39, but with the kind of effort that the ‘Hawks put forth in the second half against Masuk on Tuesday night, it could be a whole different game. The team – that second-half team from Tuesday – could make a run.

“That’s the kind of team we’ll have to be if we’re going to beat New Fairfield,” said Beckham.

Tip off is 7:30 pm.

BUNNELL      7    7    4   13  - 31

NEWTOWN    5    8  11   14  - 38

BUNNELL (31): Peterson 5 3-4 14, Bajda 0 0-0 0, Walker 1 0-0 2, A. Bajda 1 0-1 2, McNiff 1 0-0 2, Mikan 1 0-0 2, Poniatowski 1 0-0 3, Hovan 1 2-4 4, Yacobino 1 0-0 2, Kramel 0 0-0 0. Totals: 11 5-9 31.

NEWTOWN (38): Beckham 1 4-5 6, Ryan 4 5-6 13, Masella 1 0-0 2, Gellert 1 0-2 2, Haines 0 2-2 2, Iwanicki 6 1-2 13, Adamek 0 0-0 0, Bell 0 0-0 0, Oswald 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14 12-17 38.

 

Three-pointers: Peterson (B), Poniatowski (B).

MASUK     11    8    5     6  - 30

NEWTOWN  4  11  17     7  - 39

MASUK (30): DelMedico 2 0-1 4, Reynolds 2 1-2 6, Antinozzi 0 0-0 0, Martinik 2 0-1 5, Barnash 0 0-0 0, Moyse 5 0-2 10, Dwyer 1 0-0 2, Steffens 0 0-0 0, Larrow 0 3-4 3. Totals: 12 4-9 30.

NEWTOWN (39): Gellert 1 0-0 3, Oswald 0 0-0 0, Ryan 2 0-0 4, Haines 4 0-0 8, Masella 2 2-4 6, Iwanicki 6 1-2 13, Beckham 2 1-2 5, Adamek 0 0-0 0. Totals: 17 4-8 39.

Three-pointers: Reynolds (M), Gellert (N).