MONROE — There was not much suspense when Newtown High School’s girls’ basketball team visited South-West Conference foe Masuk on January 24; the Nighthawks rolled to a 48-20 triumph. Coach Jeremy O’Connell has sweated out his fair share of nail-biters so he was happy enough to coast in this one, and effectively kick back and enjoy the 300th high school victory of his coaching career.

O’Connell, in his 13th year with the Nighthawks, started his journey with Bunnell High in Stratford where he coached for eight years.

“It’s a great honor. Being able to be with these kids who work so hard for us, for this program, makes it special,” O’Connell said.

In the milestone win, Masuk hung close early and trailed by just five points in the waning moments of the opening half. A Bella Gerace 3-pointer capped the first-half scoring, giving the Nighthawks an 18-10 lead as they went into the locker room.

It was all Hawks right out of the gate in the second half. Izzy Caron drained a 3-pointer and the Newtown defense created a quick turnover that led to a Gerace basket and a 21-10 advantage less than a minute in. Time out Panthers.

“From that point on we just started rolling,” O’Connell said.

The Hawks limited Masuk to just a free throw in the third quarter and built a commanding 39-11 lead heading to the fourth. Gerace hit a straightaway 3, Allie Bradley and Bridget McCleary both scored in the paint, one of McCleary’s two buckets in the quarter coming off a nice lob over the top of the defense from Gerace. It was all Newtown the rest of the way.

Gerace had 15 points, Caron scored 14, McCleary had ten, Bradley scored five, Ava Rochester contributed three, and Sofia Verdi tacked on a free throw. Bradley and Verdi both had seven rebounds and Caron collected six boards. Gerace came up with three of Newtown’s nine steals; McCleary and Bradley both had two. Bradley also blocked a couple of shots.

O’Connell went from 297 to 300 in short order as the Hawks posted road victories on January 20 at Weston and the next day at FCIAC foe Greenwich; the Hawks beat Weston 42-22 and Greenwich 47-32.

Make it ten straight wins and a dozen games — every one this season following the opener — in which the NHS defense has limited opponents to no more than 38 points. Newtown, with these wins, improved to 11-2 overall.

Against Weston, Bradley led the way with 12 points, Caron had nine, and McCleary, Gerace, and Sam Diaspro all scored five.

In the Greenwich game, Newtown surrendered 16 points in the first quarter and just 16 the rest of the way. The Hawks trailed by a dozen after the first before rallying with a 20-point second stanza. When all was said and done, Bradley scored 13, Gerace had 12 — on four 3-pointers — McCleary had nine and Caron added eight.

In the past week the Hawks endured a couple of injuries as both Kristen Reisert and Macey Cuomo were sidelined. Ava Rochester, Verdi, Diaspro, Mo Murphy, Reese Lischuk, and Addy Cordova have stepped up in their absence.

Newtown hosts Stratford Friday, January 27 at 6:15 pm and will visit Notre Dame-Fairfield on Tuesday, January 31 at 7.

Sports Editor Andy Hutchison can be reached at andyh@thebee.com.