Newtown High School’s boys’ basketball team is in the midst of a tough stretch of games as the regular season winds down, and the Nighthawks are continuing to win or at least be right in things until the bitter end.

The Nighthawks went on the road and outlasted Masuk of Monroe 63-50 on January 28. Masuk led 11-10 after one quarter. Newtown seized a 28-22 halftime lead and was up seven points going into the fourth.

“After some early struggles the team settled in, controlled the pace on both sides of the ball, and sealed it with an 8-for-8, down the stretch from the free throw line,” Newtown Coach Tim Tallcouch said.

The Hawks got 16 points from Makai Coleman, 15 from Tyson Mobley, and 14 from Liam O’Connell. Declan Regan added eight points. O’Connell and Mobley both pulled down eight rebounds. Seven Nighthawks had a steal each.

Newtown fell behind by double digits to visiting Stratford on January 31, climbed all the way back for a late lead, but fell 72-68. Despite the outcome, Tallcouch was pleased with his team’s effort.

“We could have given up many times. We just fought back, fought back, fought back until we got the lead in the fourth quarter,” Tallcouch said. “We battle each and every night.”

Newtown trailed 35-29 at the half and fell behind by ten points in the fourth before rallying. Full-court pressure by the Hawks forced turnovers that led to key baskets. Mobley, who had three of his team’s eight steals, took the ball away and set up O’Connell to tie the game at 57-apiece with 2:59 left. O’Connell hit a front end one and one foul shot, giving the Hawks the lead for the first time — 58-57 — with 1:50 to go. Newtown’s only lead lasted all of 11 seconds as the Red Devils reclaimed the lead and made enough free throws, and grabbed offensive rebounds off foul shot misses, in the waning moments to hang on.

Mobley had 19 points and O’Connell finished with 13. Elijah Williams grabbed seven rebounds and had a trio of blocks. O’Connell and Coleman both logged two steals.

Newtown has remained competitive despite playing without the injured Isaiah Williams, whose presence in the paint on offense and defense has been missed in recent games. Tallcouch liked how his team has responded to some areas of focus in practice, including free throw shooting — the Hawks were 13-for-15 from the line against Stratford — as well as drawing charges on defense; NHS drew a pair of charges against Stratford and drawing three against Masuk. An area in which the Hawks need to improve, Tallcouch said, is in doing a better job of not allowing easy baskets in the paint.

Newtown bounced back from the Stratford game with a 57-45 win over 9-2 Amity of Woodbridge in a rescheduled nonconference game this next night.

“Real nice response by the team after a tough battle won by Stratford on Monday. Challenge to right the ship issued in our pregame and challenge answered by the boys on the court,” Tallcouch said.

Coleman led the way as the sophomore scored a career-high 25 points and added five assists. Saahil Ray scored nine, McCray had eight points and two of Newtown’s five steals; and Charlie Sepp had six points.

The Hawks outscored Amity 24-10 in the second half to set the tone and break things open for a 34-18 halftime lead. Solid defense created the pace with which Newtown likes to play, Tallcouch said.

NHS (9-4 overall and 5-2 in conference action) was scheduled to visit Notre Dame-Fairfield (7-0 in SWC play) on Thursday (check the February 11 print edition of The Bee for coverage).

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