By Steve Bigham

STRATFORD – Coach John Quinn is hoping the miserable performance at Bunnell on Tuesday night was simply a case of the his team suffering from a 24-hour bug. After all, the 61-41 defeat was the worst of the season for the boys’ basketball team and brought to a screeching halt their impressive nine-game winning streak.

“We’ve got to put this behind us. We have to find our offense because this thing can be contagious,” Quinn said. “We were flat. This was bound to happen. Now we have to re-energize.”

Newtown (8-2 in the South-West Conference, 9-5 overall) trailed by just one point at halftime, but suffered from a complete meltdown over the game’s final 16 minutes. The head coach referred to it as the “second half flu.” If that’s all it is, then Newtown will have plenty of time to recover. It doesn’t play again until next Tuesday when it hosts Bethel.

“We can call it `one of those nights’ if we come back and beat Bethel,” Quinn said.

Bunnell’s victory brought it within just a game of first place Newtown in the Colonial Division standings. The 7-3 Bulldogs – behind 6-9 center Matt Czaplinski – held the Nighthawks to just 18 points in the second half, including 17 straight missed shots by the locals over the final four minutes. Of those attempts, 12 of them were three-pointers and not one of them went down.

“This came out of nowhere. I’ve never seen us this flat. This game was not representative of what this team is all about,” Quinn said.

That’s for sure. Over the past four weeks, the Nighthawks have been more like the group that scored an exciting 77-68 win over Immaculate last Friday night before a packed house at the NHS gym. The electric crowd roared all night as John Fiscella and the Nighthawks put on a classy performance that ended the Mustangs’ four-game wining streak over Newtown.

Immaculate grabbed a 22-18 lead after eight minutes by shooting the lights out in the first quarter. But Newtown came alive in the second quarter, especially junior forward Mark DeFeo, who scored eight points as the team outscored Immaculate 24-13 to take a 42-35 lead at the intermission.

Newtown held an 11-point advantage midway through the third period before Immaculate canned a pair of three-pointers and buried four straight free throws, cutting the lead to 53-51 after three periods.

Behind Fiscella (20 points), Ryan Walker (14 points) and Josh Dittmar (13 points), Newtown exploded out of the gates in the fourth quarter and found itself up 11 with just five minutes go. However, the undersized Mustangs rallied behind floor leader Anthony Simone (20 points) to cut the deficit to three.

Newtown, in serious need of a basket, then got a big lift from sophomore Mike Troy who scored on a drive, then, moments later, picked up a charge on Simone. The momentum had spun back in Newtown’s favor.

Senior point guard Andrew Smith scored all nine of his points from the foul line (9-for-10), including six straight in the final two minutes. Junior center John Wesley also played well, scoring eight points for Newtown. Fiscella added 11 rebounds.

“I was even impressed with the way they were playing,” Quinn said of his players. “It was a perfect setting for us. There is a bit of a rivalry. The crowd was fantastic and these kids absolutely deserved that type of crowd. It was very, very gratifying; my most gratifying since I’ve been here.”

Against Bunnell, Newtown scored just four points in the third quarter and only 18 the entire second half in its worst showing of the year. Oddly enough, Newtown scored nine of its 18 second-half points during a 38-second span, meaning it took Newtown 15 minutes, 22 seconds to score the other nine. The Nighthawks trailed by just 12 points with over four minutes to go in the game, but proceeded to miss 17 straight shots, including 12 from three-point range.

For at least one night, Newtown’s patience was brushed aside. Instead, it rushed its offense and forced the issue at ever turn.

Dittmar paced Newtown with 15 points and Fiscella added 13. However, no one else on this balanced-scoring team scored more than four points.

“We’ve got five league games left and we need to go at least 3-2 in order to make the playoffs, but we’re going to go 5-0,” Quinn predicted.

NOTE: A bright spot Tuesday came late in the third quarter when junior point guard Dan Murphy entered the game. Dan has been hampered by a nagging back injury all season, and just when it looked like he was done for the season, back he bounced this week. Provided Dan stays healthy, look for him to take on a big role for Newtown over the next season and a half.