By Kim J. Harmon

Although the 2005-06 season was swiftly winding down for the Newtown High School boys’ basketball team, there was still some time to provide a little lasting excitement – most of it coming from a three-point barrage that had the Nighthawks nearly erasing a 17-point deficit.

There is still come excitement to come for the swim team, which will be battling some of the top teams in the state at the South-West Conference championships on Friday night at Masuk in Monroe, and for the girls’ basketball team, which upended Glastonbury on Tuesday and earned a trip to visit No. 2 New Britain on Thursday.

Read on –

BOYS BASKETBALL

Immaculate 60, Newtown 52

Sixteen minutes.

That’s all the Newtown High School boys’ basketball team had left to endure of the 2005-06 season before the players could hand in their uniforms and begin the long process of putting a 4-16 season behind them.

But wait a minute.

Even though they entered the half down by 17 to Immaculate in Danbury, the Nighthawks weren’t quite ready to pack their duffel bags and head home. With a surprisingly ferocious defensive effort and a three-point attack that came almost out of nowhere, the locals obliterated that 17-point deficit and pulled to within three before finally running out of gas.

The Mustangs escaped with the win, 60-52.

The ‘Hawks dropped in 19 field goals on the night – 11 of them from beyond the arc. Senior co-captain Dave McLaughlin went out in a blaze of glory, canning a school-record eight treys and falling one shy of the single season mark of 45 treys set by John Fiscella.

“All season long I’ve said these kids have a lot of character and tonight they gave everyone a chance to see what kind of kids they are,” said head coach John Quinn.

The locals took an early, 4-2, lead in the game on buckets by Jack Quinn and Joe DeVellis, but the Mustangs – who needed a win to have any shot of qualifying for the South-West Conference tournament – went on a 9-0 run to take an 11-4 lead. After McLaughlin hit his first three of the night, the Mustangs answered back with back-to-back treys and took a 19-7 lead.

The ‘Hawks pulled to within eight by the close of the period.

The ‘Hawks could manage just three points in the second quarter and the only field goal came on a shot in the low post by Mike Maher. Conversely, the Mustangs canned two more three-pointers and led 35-18 at the break.

It was evident right at the start of the third that the second half would be different. McLaughlin buried another three, Mike Kennedy hit a runner in the lane off a pass from DeVellis and Quinn made a nifty steal on the base line. After McLaughlin dropped in another trey, Quinn floated in an inside shot off a great feed from DeVellis and with an 11-0 run the ‘Hawks had trimmed the deficit to only six points.

The Mustangs finally scored, with 2:31 left in the quarter, to enter the fourth with a 37-29 lead.

With the deficit in the single digits, the locals really attacked in the final frame. McLaughlin canned four three-pointers and DeVellis added three of his own and while the ‘Hawks pulled to within three, 52-49, with 57 seconds remaining the Mustangs managed to hold them off by going an incredible 19-of-24 from the foul line in those final eight minutes.

“They could have packed it in after that first half, but they didn’t,” said coach Quinn. “Except for one or two games all year, they have always given their best effort and four wins is not indicative of the kind of kids these are. We’ll get our wins next year.”

Immaculate 60, Newtown 52

NEWTOWN (52): Joe DeVellis 5 1-6 14, Dave McLaughlin 8 0-0 24, Marc Ingerman 0 1-2 1, Mike Mitchell 0 0-0 0, Shawn Coakley 1 1-1 3, Michael Kennedy 2 0-1 4, Jack Quinn 2 0-0 4, Danny Smith 0 0-0 0, Jason Smith 0 0-0 0, Mike Maher 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 19 3-9 52.

IMMACULATE (60): Mark Cordery 5 1-2 12, Brandon McEwan 4 6-7 14, Drew Doyon 0 1-2 1, Steve Mulvey 1 1-2 3, Dan DiBuono 1 2-2 5, Jared Green 4 11-14 21, Ryan Soares 1 0-0 3, Nick DaSilva 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 16 23-31 60.

Three-pointers: Dave McLaughlin (N) 8, Joe DeVellis (N) 3, Jared Green (I) 2, Ryan Soares (I), Mark Cordery (I) Dan DiBuono (I).

SWIMMING

Preparing for SWCs

Even though the South-West Conference championships on Friday is going to be a showcase for Brookfield and Pomperaug, the Newtown High School boys’ swim team plans on showcasing itself a little bit, too.

Unless there is a cataclysmic upheaval in the SWC, first and second place are out of the question – but third place certainly isn’t nor is the possibility of one, two or three individual titles.

“Beating New Fairfield is a legitimate and attainable goal,” said head coach Matt Childs, “but clearly we need to swim very well because New Fairfield proved, in our dual meet, that they can rise to the occasion. We didn’t have a bad meet; they just swam very, very well.”

A lot of the success will depend on swimmers like Stefan Toi, Brendan Deveney and Max Barrett.

Toi has an opportunity for an individual title in the 100 butterfly and the 200 individual medley (one of his most dramatic wins of the season came in the 200 individual medley against Billy Magin of Brookfield). Deveney also has an opportunity in the 200 individual medley and the 100 backstroke. As for Barrett, the competition will be especially stiff in the 100 freestyle, but the 50 freestyle is up for grabs.

“Any one of the six swimmers in that top heat has a shot at that one,” said coach Childs.

The Nighthawks qualified as many as 11 swimmers – and no fewer than six – in each of the eight individual events (excluding diving). That gives coach Childs to ability to fill the limit of four lanes in each event.

“That’s an indication that the team has improved across the board,” he said. “Having four guys in each event, I’m sure, hasn’t happened here in a long time. A few guys have a shot at a tile and several can get All-SWC, which would be quite an accomplishment.”

Coach Childs sent three divers – Chris Hoagland, Max Hoagland and Jackie Hornak – to Masuk High School on Wednesday to open the SWC championships. A good showing there could have the ‘Hawks off to a good start come Friday night.

But that’s just one goal.

“I’d like to see season-best times from the guys who have already qualified for the states,” said coach Childs. “And I’d like to see personal best times and vast improvement from those guys who haven’t yet qualified for states. Our focus has to be on swimming fast and being prepared to swim even better in a week.”

With the two top teams in Class M and one of the top teams in Class S battling it out for an SWC championship, things could actually lighten up a bit when the ‘Hawks move on to the CIAC Class L championships.

But first things first.

“We’re excited and we’ll be ready to swim fast,” said coach Childs, “and we’ll see how things go.”

The lineup for the meet –

200 freestyle

Scott Whalley (2:03.72)

Kevin Herring (2:06.38)

Nick Maurer (2:08.86)

Mike Parker (2:09.80)

200 individual medley

Stefan Toi (2:05.33)

Brendan Deveney (2:07.09)

Anthony Fiore (2:14.14)

Zack Moliver (2:17.82)

50 freestyle

Max Barrett (23.42)

Jeff Bonaccorso (25.34)

Kevin Herring (25.38)

Dave Rothacker (26.80)

Diving

Chris Hoagland (158.5 points)

Max Hoagland

Jackie Hornak

100 butterfly

Stefan Toi (56.45)

Nick Maurer (1:00.37)

Chris Fragoso (1:06.05)

Rob Morlath (1:12.66)

100 freestyle

Max Barrett (51.48)

Jeff Bonaccorso (59.62)

Kevin O’Connor (1:00.74)

500 freestyle

Scott Whalley (5:46.94)

Rob Morlath (6:09.81)

Chris Fragoso (6:19.30)

Dave Rothacker (6:21.68)

100 backstroke

Anthony Fiore (58.64)

Brendan Deveney (59.07)

Zack Moliver (1:01.65)

Mike Parker (1:02.32)

100 breaststroke

Allen Hubbard (1:10.65)

Chris Parker (1:19.44)

Tony Fragoso (1:17.50)

James O’Connor (1:18.55)

HOCKEY

Newtown 6, St. Joseph’s 2

Cheshire 5, Newtown 0

New Fairfield 5, Newtown 1

After pounding St. Joseph’s of Trumbull, 7-2, back on Friday, February 10, it was quite a surprise to see the Newtown High School ice hockey team down, 2-0, to the Golden Eagles with just 1:54 gone in the second period.

Not to worry.

The Nighthawks shook off whatever cobwebs had clouded their minds and scored six unanswered goals to capture a 6-2 win last Wednesday at the Shelton Rinks. But with a loss to Cheshire (5-0) last Friday and a loss to New Fairfield (5-1) on Monday, the ‘Hawks finished up the 2005-06 season at 5-12-3.

In the win over St. Joseph’s, the Golden Eagles launched the first two salvos as 0:14 and 1:54 of the second period. A little over seven minutes later, though, the locals finally got their offense on track and stormed away with the win.

Matt Wright scored at 9:11 off a feed from Christian Beitel and at 10:40 Blake Bell tallied off a feed from Wright to tie the score, 2-2, heading into the third. The two squads battled close, but at 11:19 Joe Brewer notched the first of his two goals off assists from Justin Pacheco and Pat Daly.

The goals followed in rapid succession after that – at 12:44, Pacheco from Francis Oggeri and Wright; at 13:06, Brewer from Daly and Pacheco; and at 14:55, Beitel from Mike Conroy. The ‘Hawks outshot the Eagles, 38-25, and goaltender Mike Jurasek turned away 23 shots to earn the win.

Unfortunately, over the next six periods the ‘Hawks only scored one time. On Friday afternoon at the Wesleyan University Rink, Cheshire outshot Newtown, 48-18, scored three first-period goals and rolled to a 5-0 win. On Monday afternoon at the Danbury Ice Arena, the locals wrapped up the season with a 5-1 loss to New Fairfield.

Newtown               0     2     4    - 6

St. Joseph’s             0     2     0    - 2

GOALS: Newtown – Joe Brewer 2, Matt Wright, Blake Bell, Justin Pacheco, Christian Beitel. ASSISTS: Newtown – Pat Daly 2, Matt Wright 2, Justin Pacheco 2, Francis Oggeri, Mike Conroy, Christian Beitel. PENALTIES: Newtown – 3; St. Joseph’s – 5. SHOTS: Newtown – 38; St. Joseph’s – 25. SAVES: Newtown – Mike Jurasek 23.

Newtown               0     0     0    - 0

Cheshire                 3     1     1    - 5

PENALTIES: Newtown – 4; Cheshire – 6. SHOTS: Newtown – 18; Cheshire – 48. SAVES: Newtown – Peter Oggeri 43.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Newtown 58, Glastonbury 46

Shooting woes are not unfamiliar to the Newtown High School girls’ basketball team, but at least this time – in the first round of the CIAC Class LL state tournament – it was prepared to combat them.

After a dreadful first-half of shooting saw the Lady Nighthawks fall into a 14-point deficit, 25-11, they utilized a wicked press, going off on an immediate 8-0 run and storming right back into the game enroute to a 58-46 win.

Down 25-19 at the break, the ‘Hawks out-scored the Lady Tomahawks, 16-4, in the third period and soared on home from there. Morgan Knees scored a game-high 17 points while Carly Curran added 15 more. Ciara Simek and Christie Iwanicki (with a three-pointer) tossed in nine points apiece.

The win earned the ‘Hawks a date with No. 2 seed New Britain on Thursday. The Lady Hurricanes, 17-3, earned a first-round bye. A win against the ‘Canes would pit the locals against the winner of the game between No. 7 Danbury and No. 10 Masuk.

Newtown 58, Glastonbury 46

GLASTONBURY (46): Ashley Brent 1 2-2 4, Tricia Tacey 3 1-2 8, Annie Backofen 3 1-2 10, Tori DiPietro 0 2-2 2, Liz Pinone 3 3-5 9, Julie Quistroff 1 1-2 3, Heather Dyer 0 0-0 0, Sara Paternostro 0 0-0 0, Olivia Haubert 4 0-7 10. TOTALS: 14 11-24 46.

NEWTOWN (58): Ciara Simek 3 3-6 9, Carly Curran 7 1-7 15, Kacy Foehrenbach 1 1-2 3, Christie Iwanicki 3 2-2 9, Kristi Nowak 2 0-0 4, Darcy Fiscella 0 0-0 0, Morgan Knees 6 5-6 17, Kate Condon 0 0-2 0. TOTALS: 22 13-28 58.

Three-pointers: Annie Backofen (G) 3, Olivia Houbert (G) 2, Christie Iwanicki (N), Tricia Tacey (G).