By Kim J. Harmon

STRATFORD – Beating Masuk has become the Achilles heel of the Newtown High School girls’ basketball team and last Friday night in the South-West Conference championship the Lady Nighthawks came up limping again.

The ‘Hawks have lost just 12 times in the last three years, but seven of those losses have been to their neighboring archrival. In fact, the ‘Hawks haven’t beaten the Lady Panthers since a regular season win on Friday, January 19, 2001.

And it’s always something – a bad shot, a bad call, a late collapse.

It was no different last week.

“It was simple,” said head coach Tim Salem. “We missed shots. We had three steals and 12 shots at the basket (in the fourth period) and came away with nothing. We did not play as well as we did against Kolbe, but we have to give Masuk credit for running their offense so well.”

The ‘Hawks were down just three points, 39-36, with nearly six minutes still to play when the ‘Hawks went ice cold. For more than four minutes, the ‘Hawks went scoreless as the Panthers built up their lead on baskets by Michelle Martinik and Kellye Caulfield.

The ‘Hawks did get off to a fast start in this one, taking a 10-4 advantage midway through the first period, but the Panthers rallied back with a 10-0 run to take a 14-10 lead at the end of the quarter. The ‘Hawks were down as much as nine points in the second quarter before Ashley Larocque hit a succession of baskets to pull her team to within two points.

That’s as close as the ‘Hawks could get.

It was a poor shooting night all around, with the two teams combining to hit just 40.4% from the field, but the Panthers had enough to hold on to their lead and head home with another SWC championship.

The win was Masuk coach Dave Strong’s 600th career victory.

A bunch of those wins have come at the expense of Newtown.

The most dramatic meeting between the two schools was in the 2001-02 SWC championship game, where Masuk defeated Newtown, 55-50, in double overtime. Amanda Larrow scored 28 points to lead the Panthers. Kelley Haines (then a sophomore) scored 12 points and Lisa Masella (now a sophomore at Western New England College) added 12 more.

“In big games,” former Newtown head coach Gregg Simon said at the time, “big players step up.”

The truth of that statement could be applied to last Friday night, when Martinik – who will soon be on her way to Southern Connecticut State University – scored a game-high 15 points and earned the SWC Tournament MVP Award.

Meanwhile, Haines led Newtown with 14 points while Larocque and Katie O’Connor chipped in with 10 apiece. Stephanie Logan contributed six points while Julie Iwanicki canned two. The ‘Hawks shot 8-of-9 from the free throw line.

Larocque and Haines joined Martinik and Brittany Tartaglia of Masuk, Erica Beverly of Kolbe, on Michele Mihalov of Notre Dame on the SWC All-Tournament team.