Newtown High School’s boys’ basketball team suffered its first conference loss of the campaign in a 54-53 nail-biter to visiting Immaculate of Danbury on February 4.

Immaculate led 16-13 after one quarter of play and 31-30 at halftime and Newtown led 37-33 in the third before the Mustangs went back in front. Newtown trailed 41-38 going to the fourth.

Jack Petersen had 18 points and Tyson Mobley scored 15 — each hitting a trio of 3-pointers — to lead the Nighthawks. Petersen and Jack Mulligan both had six rebounds, and Isaiah Williams had five rebounds. Riley Ward had eight points, six assists, four rebounds, and three steals, Mobley had five assists and two steals. Joe McCray and Mulligan both scored six points.

Immaculate remains unbeaten in South-West Conference play at 7-0 and improved to 13-1 overall. NHS fell to 6-1 in SWC play and 10-4 overall.

“I thought our kids were prepared to go do battle against what we knew was a very good team, sixth in the latest state poll,” said Newtown Coach Tim Tallcouch, noting that it was a back-and-forth game with no lead more than four points by either team. “Give Immaculate credit, they’ve been in pressure situations before and came out on top, but I’m real proud of our players who played to the end. If we take what we learned tonight and improve upon a couple of things, I like our chances the rest of the regular season and in the tournament.”

Newtown rolled to a 65-41 triumph over visiting Stratford on January 31. The highlight of the night was Mobley’s lob to Petersen for an alley-oop dunk. Mobley had 19 points, McCray 15, Ward a baker’s dozen, and Petersen ten. Mobley made a five 3-pointers.

The Nighthawks led 15-10 after one quarter of play and pulled away in the second period, building a 34-15 lead at the half. Isaiah Williams scored on a put-back to beat the buzzer before the break.

Connor Ivey finished with four of Newtown’s 19 rebounds. Seven Nighthawks scored and seven got onto the stat sheet with rebounds. Mobley had seven steals and Petersen four steals.

“They play so well together. It didn’t matter who I put out there tonight — they all produced,” Tallcouch said.