Selfless Hawk Girls Keep Putting Opponents Away

By Andy Hutchison

The scores of the most recent games tell the story — 69-36 over Masuk of Monroe, 73-31 over Bunnell of Stratford, and 68-29 over Immaculate of Danbury. Newtown High School’s girls’ basketball team has been building the early lead and clamping down on opponents night in and night out. It’s not that they’re even trying to run up the score. Coach Jeremy O’Connell unloads his bench and the underclassmen just about pick up right where the team leaders left off as they battle for future playing time.

“Game after game we’ve been getting better and better — and doing the things that we need to do to help us down the road. And earlier in the season it would be very close and we’d allow teams to hang around,” O’Connell said. “But now we’re taking that extra initiative and putting them away — and that’s what we need to do.”

O’Connell points out that he doesn’t want to let teams back into the game, and he also wants his players to stay sharp no matter what the score.

It’s not that the Nighthawks haven’t been winning all along. They have, posting a 9-1 mark through Tuesday’s action; the one loss came to non-South-West Conference opponent Manchester. The Hawks, since that setback, have beaten the aforementioned conference rivals in succession, in their first three games of the new calendar year. NHS beat Masuk on January 3, toppled Bunnell in a game in which Riley Wurtz drained 30 points and became the program’s third player to reach 1,000 in her career (see related story), and drubbed Immaculate on January 10 behind 22 by Wurtz, 18 from Jess Lynch, and 11 from Bridget Power.

Newtown does it so selflessly. The ball gets moved around with pass after pass before someone is either wide open or makes a cut to the basket to at least get a chance for foul shots. Shot selection has been key to the success in the early going.

“Sometimes I have to yell at them because they’re too unselfish. But that’s the makings of a pretty good team with the fact that they’re always looking for that extra pass to someone that might have a better shot than they have,” O’Connell said.

Newtown uses an all-out pressuring full-court defense to force turnovers and set the tone early on in games. When the opponents break the press, the Nighthawks get back on defense and burn them with speed in transition — led by the quickness of Wurtz, Power, and Lynch.

Cassie Ekstrom, Maddy Good, Carly Iwanicki, Erin Kenning, Sam Steimle, Kristina Engler, Mary Jo Rossi, Tressa Scott, and Kristie VosWinkel all contribute with sharp shooting and passing or, if nothing else, wear-out-the opponents hustle during their time on the court.

The Nighthawks will strive to keep up their lopsided winning ways this Friday, January 13, at Bethel. Then comes a big one — a rematch with Lauralton hall of Milford, the team that Newtown topped in last year’s SWC championship game, then lost to in the state tournament. Game time is 7 pm in Milford on Tuesday, January 17.

The Hawks return home to face Kolbe Cathedral of Bridgeport at 7 pm on Friday, January 20.