Pack The Gym … And Make It Rock—

Manos, Nighthawks Knock Off Immaculate In OT Thriller On Pack The Gym Night

By Andy Hutchison

Led by the sharp 3-point shooting efforts of junior Peter Manos and a never-give-up attitude, the Newtown High School boys’ basketball team earned a thrilling, wild, playoff-like 73-70 overtime victory against visiting Immaculate of Danbury on January 30.

Manos sank the game-deciding shot — his sixth 3-pointer of the night — in the final seconds, sparking a boisterous reaction from the home crowd that came out in droves for Pack The Gym Night and in which proceeds benefited the American Cancer Society. Following Manos’s shot and an Immaculate timeout with 2.4 seconds remaining, sophomore Josh Engler stole Immaculate’s midcourt inbounds pass to seal the win. Newtown improved to 7-6 (5-3 in the South-West Conference) and Immaculate fell to 8-4, 3-3. The Nighthawks are 2-1 (the lone defeat coming in overtime to Bunnell) since the suspension of three of their top players.

“You couldn’t have written a better script,” said NHS Coach John Quinn, noting that the bleachers were chock-full of fans. “They saw a great high school game. They saw an undersized, inexperienced team play against one of the best teams in the league so far.”

The game was pretty tight throughout and went back and forth in the final minutes of regulation. Down 60-58, Newtown knotted the score when Manos drove to the hoop for a layup with 1:20 remaining. Neither team hit another shot before the four-minute overtime.

Junior Casey Tenney sank a clutch 3-pointer and blocked a shot in OT and senior captain Kurt Nacewicz scored a 3-point play the old-fashioned way by converting a layup while being fouled and sinking the free throw to make it 68-65 Newtown with 1:28 left in the extra period. With his team leading 68-67 with 41.7 seconds remaining, Nacewicz was fouled and sank a pair of foul shots to push the lead back to three, 70-67. I

mmaculate deadlocked the score, setting the stage for Manos’s heroics.

Manos had a sharp-shooting night from the get-go. At one point in the first half he scored nine straight Newtown points in three consecutive shots from behind the arc. He finished the game with 22 points.

“I’ve never shot like that in my life — it’s amazing,” Manos said.

Quinn, however, was not at all surprised by Manos’s success and believes he has been shooting like that for a while now.

“Peter has been shooting this well for the better part of three weeks — in practice, for the JV team, in his shoot around,” Quinn said.

And he did a nice job guarding Immaculate’s fleet-footed Ryan Nolan, the coach added.

Manos was quick to point out that many players contributed to the win. “It was the whole team tonight. We had really good chemistry,” he said.

“Everyone stepped up,” said Nacewicz, adding that the program’s players who generally play in junior varsity games practice hard with the varsity squad and are well-prepared for these games.

Junior Max Payntor had 5 points and sophomore Matt Datin scored 4 points and contributed a strong rebounding effort off the bench.

“It was crazy — every time someone hit a shot everyone got so loud,” Dayton said of the crowd’s enthusiasm in this game.

Tenney had 11 points, junior Dan Lynch added 7, and Engler had 2 as the Hawks overcame a size and experience disadvantage against Immaculate.

“We’re not the biggest team and we’re not the strongest team. We put together an offense that plays to our strength,” which is all-around speed and getting the ball into the hands of Nacewicz, Quinn said.

Newtown was scheduled to take on New Milford on Wednesday (after The Bee sports section went to press) in a game rescheduled due to snow on Tuesday. The Nighthawks have a rare Friday off then host Kolbe Cathedral on Tuesday.

It remains to be seen how long this upstart, inexperienced (at the varsity level anyway) squad can keep up the winning ways, but the confidence is there.

“We can beat anybody,” Manos said.