By Steve Bigham

SOUTHBURY - The Nighthawks may have started the season 0-3, but they gained some respect around the area for strong play against some of the state’s top teams. The wins, everyone said, would come in time.

But after rebounding to win its own holiday tournament last week, the ‘Hawks have now lost two more games, leaving second-year coach John Quinn not knowing what to think. Newtown’s disappointing 56-47 loss at Pomperaug in Southbury Tuesday night followed up its 58-57 defeat at the hands of Immaculate at home December 29th.

At 2-5, Newtown has a long way to go to reach .500. Most Newtown fans still think this squad can end up with a double-digit win season, but those wins need to start coming soon. The excuse that the toughest part of Newtown’s schedule was at the start is a legitimate one. Immaculate and Pomperaug join Kolbe Cathedral, Bloomfield and Warren Harding in the category of strong teams.

However, if ever Quinn needed to draw a line in the sand it is now. Starting with Friday’s game at Stratford, the Nighthawks can no longer take solace in a good loss.

“There are no more moral victories. You’re entitled to have one or two. We’ve made our quota. Now it’s time to step up and win,” said a frustrated Quinn. “Unfortunately we’ve taken a few steps backwards.”

Against Pomperaug, Newtown was beaten over the top. Its full-court pressure was beaten deep for easy layups on countless occasions. For Quinn, it had to be frustrating to see his quick team come close to forcing a turnover only to have someone break free for the score. It’s not often that you can say a team lost as a result of its own tenacious defensive pressure, but such was the case this week in Southbury and the league loss dropped Newtown’s South-West Conference record to 0-2.

“I fully expected to win that game given how we played in spite of our record. But we showed little enthusiasm and I think we may have taken them for granted. They’re a good team,” Quinn said.

Newtown’s in-your-face defense did have its moments and the Nighthawks were in the game late, but its shooters were cold and its last-ditch comeback effort fell way short. This was an especially tough loss for Quinn, who was looking to avenge last year’s lambasting of Newtown by the Panthers. That was the night that Newtown lost four key players to academic ineligibility and had to take the floor with a skeleton crew. Panther coach Tory Verdi, who often screams in his players’ faces, showed little mercy that day, running up the score and practically dancing out of the NHS gym, oblivious to Quinn’s plight.

“You don’t want to make it a personal thing, but the way we got rocked last year . . . we wanted to get even with him,” Quinn said.

Newtown appeared to be in good shape after it used a 6-0 run late in the second quarter for a 23-22 halftime lead. But things began to take a turn for the worst in the second half and Pomperaug, behind the scoring of Jason Baisch, began to pull away. The Panthers missed plenty of shots and committed numerous turnovers, but Newtown simply would not take advantage. Layups were missed, 3-pointers were bricked and the full-court pressure collapsed.

John Fiscella’s 20 points led Newtown, but besides Courtney Steele’s 11-point effort, there was little else in the way of scoring. Jason Godoy (six points) struggled through one of his worst shooting games of his varsity career.

“That’s going to happen, but we can’t let that affect our overall game plan, and it’s not just Jason, it’s everybody,” Quinn said. “We also need to get more offense from our back court.”

Recently, the head coach has turned to sophomore Josh Dittmar who has played well in spots. His experience early on should pay off down the stretch.

“I’m still very positive about this team. Our goals are still to make the league playoffs and the states, but it’s very difficult if you take a major step back and that’s what I felt this game was,” Quinn said. “The last two games saw very good zone defenses employed against us. That should play into what we do well, but we’ve been unable to adjust and run our off all the way through.”

In a non-league matchup against Immaculate, Newtown was taken out of its offense by a squad that had scouted the locals heavily. The Nighthawks were in the game from start to finish, but may have run out of gas after winning the holiday tournament earlier in the week. Doug Riepe, who scored his 1,000th point this week, led the Mustangs with 19.

“We forced a lot of shots. We adjusted too late to their spreading their court. If we had another minute we might have been able to win the game,” Quinn said.

Immaculate went to the foul line 34 times to Newtown’s 11.

“But that’s not why we lost. They’re a very well-coached team and they were well prepared to play us,” Quinn said.

Newtown heads to Stratford Friday night, then heads home to face New Fairfield on Tuesday.

“We have 13 games to go with some goals that are certainly still achievable,” Quinn said. “Now is the time to do it. The Stratford game is very important. To say it will make or break the season is probably a bit too strong, but that’s where we’re at right now. There’s going to be a lot of soul searching these next couple of days.

NEWTOWN      13     10     13    11 - 47

POMPERAUG   11     11     17    17 - 56

 

NEWTOWN (47): Jason Godoy 2 1-1 6, John Fiscella 6 4-5 20, Courtney Steele 3 5-7 11, Rich Engel 1 0-0 3, Bret McEvoy 1 0-0 2, Josh Dittmar 1 3-5 5, John Wesley 0 0-0 0, Ryan Walker 0 0-0 0, Jeff Wolcott 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14 13-18 47.

POMPERAUG (56): Dave Colasanto 4 0-0 8, Joe Brady 1 2-2 4, Ross Carrigan 4 1-3 12, Lenny Genovese 4 0-0 8, Mike Henriquis 4 0-0 8, Jason Baisch 8 3-5 19, Joe Busalacchi 0 0-0 0. Totals: 22 9-13 56.

Three-Pointers: Fiscella (N) 4, Carrigan (P) 3, Godoy (N), Engel (N)

 

iIMMACULATE 7     15     18    18 - 58

NEWTOWN     10     12     14    21 - 57

 

IMMACULATE (58): Doug Riepe 6 7-10 19, Dave Bonilla 4 2-7 10, Chris Haddad 2 4-4 10, Anthony Simone 0 7-8 7, Tom Wilson 2 1-2 5, John Tomasienski 2 1-1 5, Anthony Conte 0 2-2 2. Totals: 16 24-34 58.

NEWTOWN (57): Jason Godoy 4 2-2 11, John Fiscella 5 0-1 13, Courtney Steele 7 2-4 16, Rich Engel 2 1-2 6, Bret McEvoy 3 0-0 7, Josh Dittmar 1 2-2 4, John Wesley 0 0-0 0. Totals: 22 7-11 57.

Three-pointers: Fiscella (N) 3, Haddad (I) 2, Godoy (N), Engel (N), McEvoy (N).