Girls Clinch Tournament Berth—

Hawks Look To Build Off Win, Higher-Intensity Practices

By Andy Hutchison

Newtown High School’s girls’ basketball team played what Coach Jeremy O’Connell believes was its best game of the campaign on January 19. Newtown racked up 44 first-half points en route to a 64-35 triumph at Bunnell of Stratford. With the win, the Nighthawks improved to 8-3 overall and, in doing so, clinched a state tournament berth.

The win was a big one for the Nighthawks in more ways than one. In addition to being a playoff clincher, the win was a nice rebound triumph for the team coming off a bad loss. It also marked the return of O’Connell to his former gymnasium where he coached for 14 seasons — eight as a head coach before taking over with the Nighthawks this winter.

“It meant a lot last night,” O’Connell said at his team’s practice the day after beating Bunnell. “You try to not make it personal or anything like that — but it was.”

O’Connell was pleased with his team’s play from the start. “From the opening tip-off we came out with intensity, with passion, with heart and we played our style of basketball — and Bunnell was just shell-shocked.

Riley Wurtz led the way with 23 points, Jess Lynch had 15, Erin Kenning and Maddy Good each dropped in eight, and Bridget Power scored six. Newtown built a big first-half lead with 44 points before the intermission to drop Bunnell to 4-6 overall.

The Nighthawks may have already been in good shape for clinching a playoff berth, but the Hawks needed to bounce back following a not-so-pretty loss to Masuk of Monroe on January 14.

When all was said and done, the Nighthawks had compiled 13 steals, but O’Connell believed his team, in effect, robbed itself a chance at a win, thanks to a lackluster first half against visiting Masuk.

The Nighthawks fell behind 29-15 by halftime en route to a 42-34 loss despite a valiant second-half comeback effort spearheaded by a turnover-causing full-court press and hustle in going after loose balls at both ends of the floor.

“I think there was a lot of lack of effort in the first half. We didn’t come out with intensity and passion and when the second half started it was fun. The game was fun in the second half — we played hard. Yeah, we couldn’t hit shots but, still, the game was fun. If we played like that the entire game, it’s a different outcome and a lot more things start to go your way,” O’Connell said.

O’Connell and the Nighthawks hoped their strong play in the third and fourth quarters would spill over into the remaining games as they strive to get back on the winning track. The Nighthawks were disappointed to lose their second game in three tries after cruising to four straight wins early in the year.

In the second half, Newtown caused repeated turnovers to chip away at the double-digit deficit and pull to within six on two occasions. Lynch led the way with six of the team’s baker’s dozen steals and dropped in a team-best 12 points. Power added three steals, and five assists to go along with seven points. Kenning and Wurtz scored six and five, respectively. The ordinarily high-scoring Wurtz was defended closely throughout the game and Newtown just couldn’t get in sync offensively in the first half.

Carly Iwanicki led the team in the double-edged sword statistic, pulling down 12 rebounds. Iwanicki did a nice job down low to get to missed shots, many of which were Newtown attempts as the Hawks were held to, by far, their lowest point total of the campaign.

In their game before the Masuk clash, Newtown easily knocked off Stratford, winning 59-27 on January 11. In that triumph, Wurtz and Lynch each scored 16 points, Abbey Doski had six, Good and Power both contributed five, and Sam Steimle added four. Wurtz had four 3-pointers in the game as Newtown jumped out to a 37-13 halftime advantage and never looked back.

Clearly, the ability to win on any is there, and the Nighthawks are in good position to return to the state and playoffs, and O’Connell said after the Masuk game that the team members had to show more intensity in practice.

“If you don’t have the intensity in the drills and everything and if you’re easy on your friends and everything in practice, then you’re not going to get better in the game,” O’Connell said.

Newtown improved to 4-2 in the conference and is looking to improve and continue its run of qualifying to the South-West Conference Tournament, which began in the first year of the SWC back in the middle 1990s.

“We need to roll now. We need to get together and pick ourselves up as a team and roll,” the coach said after the Masuk game. The Nighthawks got the ball rolling at Bunnell and they’ll look to keep winning as the regular season unfolds and gives way to the postseason.