Date: Fri 24-Jan-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: TOMW

Illustration: I

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Glorydays-January-24-97

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Glorydays - January 24, 1997

The Newtown High girls' basketball team continued its winning ways Tuesday by

defeating Weston 42-34 in a Western Connecticut Conference game played at the

loser's court. The win was the Indians' third-straight.

Newtown is now 7-1 in the league and is one of three teams tied for first

place in the Briggs Division. The other two are Masuk, which lost its first

game last week, and Brookfield, a team Newtown faces Friday, January 22.

The Indians have an 8-2 record overall and are near to qualifying for their

first state tournament berth in years.

Center Grace Whitney keyed a Newtown spurt just before halftime that opened up

the game. She scored four points and pulled down three important rebounds as

the Indians moved out to a 21-13 lead.

Newtown incresed its edge by three in the third quarter thanks to the play of

Jacquie Smith, who scored nine of her game-high 22 points in that stanza.

The locals did not shoot well from the field, hitting only 29 percent on 18 of

63, but they played good defense and handled Weston's press adequately.

" A win Friday [against Brookfield] will put us in excellent shape, " said

Newtown coach Joe Fazio. " If we shoot well we have a good chance at beating

them because we always take enough shots. "

Though their field goal percentage is usually low, the Indians usually make up

the difference by getting off more shots than their opponent.

Weston was paced by Claudine Brardell with 17.

NEWTOWN (42) - Jacquie Smith 9 4-8 22, Grace Whitney 4 0-2 8, Donna

Springmeyer 1 1-3 2, Barb Cassin 2 0-2 4, Lori Zemo 0 0-0 0, Sue McMahon 0 0-0

0, Stacey Mark 0 0-0 0, Dana Skalandunas 0 0-0 0, Laura Gollinghorst 2 1-6 5,

Beth Graves 0 0-0 0. Totals: 18 6-20 42.

WESTON (34) - Brardell 5 7-11 17, Diederichson 3 0-0 6, Buckley 0 0-3 0,

Stript 1 1-5 3, F.Graves 0 0-2 0, P.Graves 0 0-0 0, Tomasiewicz 3 2-2 8,

Kondis 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12 10-23 34.

Weston 8 5 9 12 - 34

Newtown 8 13 12 9 - 42

Halftime: Newtown 21, Weston 13.

The jayvees evened their record at 4-4 with a 41-12 victory over Weston.

Shalor LaCava scored 16 points to pace the junior Indians, while Trish O'Byrne

added eight. Center Bridget Beaudoin was a standout on defense and also

rebounded well.

Newtown has won all its game this season on the road.

A comeback effort by the St Rose girls' varsity basketball team fell short

against St Gregory of Danbury Monday night in a Danbury Parochial School

Basketball League game played at the Edmond Town Hall gym. The final was

38-29. The loss dropped St Rose's record to 2-3 while Danbury improved to 5-3.

The visitors, displaying accurate shooting, raced out to a 24-10 first half

lead. However, Kirsten Swanson and Megan McDonald scored eight of St Rose's

nine pionts in the third quarter as the locals closed the gap to 28-19.

With 2:30 left in the game St Rose had whittled down the margin to three at

30-27 but St Gregory used two breakaways and a turnover to score three

straight baskets and put the game away.

Guard Jodi Fazio and center Swanson keyed the fourth quarter charge by St

Rose. Swanson finished with 11 points, nine of them scored in the second half.

St Rose will next host St Peter's of Brookfield at the town hall.

ST ROSE (29) - Jodi Fazio 2-0-4, Michele Araya 0-0-0, Megan McDonald 4-1-9,

Kirsten Swanson 5-1-11, Kris Campe 1-1-3, McAuliffe 0-0-0, Dawn Keefe 1-0-2,

Jenny Dirga 0-0-0, Phuong Ruffles 0-0-0. Totals: 13-3-29.

ST GREGORY (38) - Ford 6-1-13, Kuhn 2-0-4, Mazzuco 4-1-9, Roby 1-0-2, Simpson

5-0-10. Totals: 18-2-38.