Newtown High School’s girls’ basketball team closed out the regular season with a loss that featured a milestone, then began South-West Conference Tournament action with a 61-27 play-in game victory over visiting New Fairfield on February 24.

In a 64-25 loss at nonconference foe West Haven on February 20, the Nighthawks celebrated Sam Diaspro registering her 1,000th career point, joining just four other NHS players to accomplish the feat in the program’s history.

“She has definitely put so much effort and time into improving her craft,” said Coach Jeremy O’Connell, adding that teammates do a great job of finding her on the court.

On to the playoffs, the No 4 Nighthawks dominated No 13 New Fairfield, which qualified for the tourney under a new rule in which all state qualifiers automatically get a spot in the now expanded conference bracket. It used to be that the top eight SWC teams made the dance.

The play-in games were originally scheduled for February 23, but bumped because of snow. Newtown initially was to play on back-to-back nights but caught a bit of a break when the No 5 Kolbe Cathedral and No 12 Weston matchup was held off an extra day. NHS plays the winner in the quarterfinals on Thursday, February 26 at 5 pm.

The semifinals got moved to Saturday; the finals will be held Monday, March 2, at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury.

In the win over New Fairfield, the Nighthawks saw 14 players participate and eight register points. Newtown jumped out to a 21-2 lead after one quarter of play and rolled from there.

“We had contributions from everyone and that’s fantastic. It’s going to make us more lethal in the playoffs,” said O’Connell, adding that opposing teams will key in on standout scorer Diaspro and others need to be comfortable stepping up.

Diaspro scored 13 points in the playoff-opening win, and Madi Weston set her career high with ten points in the opening quarter alone en route to registering 16 points. Ana Morris scored 11 points. Kendal Khazadian logged nine points on a trio of 3-pointers, Macey Arcario scored six, Leah Morris had three, Elise Ansman two, and Addy Cordova tacked on a free throw.

Deirdre McCleary, Lyla Kopp, Kendall Kuzma, Delia Stango, Cameron Stewart, and Addie Kopp also saw time on the court.

The Nighthawks defeated Kolbe by 13 and Weston by 16 during the regular season. The winner plays either top seed Notre Dame Prep or No 9 Bunnell of Stratford. NHS defeated Bunnell by 22 and lost to Notre Dame by six in a game the Nighthawks led through three quarters.

Sports Editor Andy Hutchison can be reached at andyh@thebee.com.