It was a disappointing week for Newtown High School’s boys’ basketball team, which lost one game with its standout center out of the lineup, then may have lost one or two more opportunities to play due to coronavirus quarantine protocol impacting opposing teams.

The Nighthawks, with standout Jack Petersen unavailable due to protocol, kept things close early on before visiting Kolbe Cathedral of Bridgeport pulled away for a 63-39 triumph on February 17.

A scheduled home contest with Masuk of Monroe on February 23 has been postponed and Newtown's Monday, March 1 scheduled home contest with Notre Dame-Fairfield will also be postponed; Notre Dame’s February 20 and 23 games were not played. Whether or not games will be rescheduled remains to be seen, but dates are limited in this truncated season. Weston and Joel Barlow of Redding have upcoming games postponed.

Newtown is scheduled to visit Stratford on Friday, February 26, with tipoff set for 7:15 pm.

“I am hopeful that any makeups will occur, but more importantly, I am hopeful that every program around the state has the good fortune to stay well. Personally, I’m grateful for any time on the court with our team, practice or actual games,” Tallcouch said.

Newtown’s underclassmen got some more opportunity to play in the Kolbe game and held their own until the second half.

The Hawks trailed just 22-19 and came up with multiple stops on the defensive end of the court to create chances to overtake the Cougars, only to come up empty. Kolbe led 28-19 at the half.

Kolbe started the third quarter on an 8-0 run to seize a 36-19 advantage. Newtown scored seven unanswered to get the deficit down to ten with 4:50 to play in the stanza. The Cougars canned back-to-back 3-pointers within seconds thanks to one of Newtown’s 14 turnovers, and Kolbe kept pulling away.

Tallcouch said the Hawks look to limit turnovers to under ten per game and that his team’s youth and inexperience likely led the mistakes.

Kolbe is a traditionally one of the best in the South-West Conference, but Tallcouch believes there are no easy games.

“They’re all tough. ... Playing a team like Kolbe — well coached, highly athletic — for our guys, we played slightly shorthanded and we did a nice job,” said Tallcouch, adding that his players will gain experience from this contest and get better as the season unfolds.

Isaiah Williams scored a dozen points. Charlie Sepp had a double-double as he dropped in 11 points and grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds. Joe McCray had seven points.

Sophomores Sepp, Cam Ward, Saahil Ray, Connor Dullinger, Kevin Murray, and Connor Hintze all got playing time.