Newtown Bounces Back, Beats Masuk In State Tourney Opener

By Andy Hutchison

Not knowing how their high school careers would end, the seniors on the Newtown High boys’ basketball team walked away with a great memory from their final home game on Tuesday night. Newtown defeated the Masuk Panthers 61-52 in the first round of the Class LL State Tournament at the Hawks Nest.

The Nighthawks not only advanced to the tourney’s second round, they avenged a regular-season overtime defeat to their South-West Conference rivals and rebounded following an early exit in last week’s SWC Tournament when the Hawks were topped by eventual SWC champ Stratford.

Newtown, the state tourney’s No. 16 seed, advanced to visit No. 1 Windsor; the second round clash, originally slated to be played Thursday, was switched to Friday at 7 pm.

The Nighthawks (16-5) pushed past No. 17 Masuk (14-7) with a strong all around performance. Newtown had four scorers in double figures, nine players who saw playing time, and went 11-of-12 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter to seal the win.

“It was a complete team effort,” Newtown Head Coach John Quinn said.

It took the whole team to stop Masuk’s top player, senior Steve Zazuri.

When Masuk won during the regular season, Zazuri torched the Hawks for 42 points. Zazuri appeared poised for another 40-plus performance after a 21-point first-half outburst against the Hawks on Tuesday. The Hawks began the game by abandoning their generally effective full-court press and mixing their defensive schemes, using man-to-man and zone defenses to try to counter Zazuri, but it didn’t work.

“We are a very good man-defense team but we had no answer for him,” Quinn said.

So at halftime the Hawks made an adjustment. Quinn credits assistant coach Brian Craigin for the decision to play strictly a 1-1-3 defense, which put defenders on each wing to cover Zazuri on the outside, along with three players down in the paint to clog the lanes to the basket.

“We had a feeling that was the defense that would neutralize them,” Quinn said.

It worked with the Hawks coming up with several blocked shots inside and forcing some errant long-range attempts. Masuk made only three second-half field goals. Newtown’s defensive adjustment held the Panthers without a third-quarter field goal until the last second of the period. The Hawks held the Panthers to just six third-quarter points and took a 48-42 lead into the fourth. NHS allowed 19 points in the first quarter alone but held Masuk to just 16 in the entire second half.

“It was a great display of defense,” Quinn said.

Zazuri was held to 13 second-half points. He ended up with an impressive 34 points overall, but had to work hard to earn all of them. He was contested again and again by Newtown’s defenders and compiled 16 of his points at the free throw line on a 16-for-20 foul shooting performance.

“I think we defended well,” NHS senior Greg Rodden said. “We wanted to cloud the middle more and not let him drive as much.

Despite Zazuri’s first half success, the Hawks hung in there and trailed by just two, 36-34 at the break. Both teams shot well in the first quarter which ended in a high-scoring 19-19 deadlock.

Masuk built a 19-13 lead but NHS senior PJ Cochrane hit consecutive three-pointers in the final minute of the period to even the score. Newtown used the long-range shot to answer each time Masuk took the lead. Down 27-25 in the second, NHS senior Kevin Troy sank a three for the lead. Down 34-32 in the waning first-half seconds, Troy got his hand on an inbounds pass from under the basket and senior Mike Maher was there to lay the ball in and even the score. Zazuri gave the visitors the lead with — what else — a pair of free throws.

In the second half, Troy’s three pointer gave the Nighthawks a 37-36 lead and the home team never relinquished the lead from that point on.

Senior Jason Smith came up with a blocked shot and soon thereafter converted a three-point play when he was fouled, giving Newtown a 45-37 lead with 2:41 left in the third. The closest Masuk got was to within four points midway through the fourth but Cochrane quickly gave the Hawks a six-point cushion with two of his 12 points. Troy led the Hawks with 15 points, Smith had 13 and Maher added 12.

The Nighthawks expected that they would face Windsor, which went 20-0 in the regular season, in Thursday’s second round game.

“They’re athletic, they’re fast — they press,” Quinn said.

But Quinn, noting that his team was in every game this winter, was confident it had a chance to pull off the upset.

“We’ll be in the game. I’m absolutely convinced of that,” he said.