NHS Girls’ Basketball Team Keeps SWC Streak Alive—

Hawks Fall To Top Seed, Focus On States

By Andy Hutchison

The streak is alive.

Newtown High School’s girls’ basketball team reached the South-West Conference playoffs for the 15th straight year and the Nighthawks have been in the conference playoffs every winter since the inaugural 1995-96 SWC season.

Newtown, which got in as the eighth and last seed, fell to top-seeded Pomperaug 60-36 in the quarterfinals in Southbury on February 20. The Nighthawks, however, were thrilled just to keep the tradition going.

“I think we’re in one of the toughest conferences in the state — all the storied programs, from Masuk and Kolbe [Cathedral], Notre Dame [Fairfield] and Lauralton Hall, and all those teams,” Newtown Coach Shawn O’Brien said, “And to go down to the wire and beat out Masuk and New Fairfield, teams that have won state championships before, with such a young team, it says a lot for the future of the program.”

The Hawks, led by just one senior — sharp-shooter Sara Kelley — are a young and now fairly experienced team. They qualified for the SWC tourney on the last day of the season by knocking off Oxford.

“We were kind of nervous toward the end there because we weren’t sure if we were going to get in, but by the end we were just fighting as hard as we could and putting our heart into the game so we could get there,” Newtown’s Jess Lynch, one of six sophomores on the roster, said.

O’Brien said Newtown is the only remaining team in the conference that has qualified for the conference tournament every year.

Now, the Nighthawks will turn their attention to the start of the state playoffs, which get underway March 2 at 7 pm.

Newtown is the Class LL State Tournament’s No. 19 seed and will visit No. 14 Brien McMahon in Norwalk.

“I’m really excited for the start of states. A little nervous — but really excited,” Lynch said.

O’Brien said whichever team wins the opener will have their hands full with a second-round game at No. 3 Norwich Free Academy next. The Nighthawks hope they will have an opportunity to face that tough task, O’Brien added.

“We’re going to be confident and go in and do our best,” Kelley said.