By Steve Bigham

One night after John Fiscella exploded for 40 points in a win over New Fairfield, Jason Godoy pumped in 31 to help the Newtown High boys’ basketball team beat Staples and capture its own Holiday Tournament Tuesday night.

This week’s tournament was indeed a coming out party for the 1999-2000 Nighthawks who have suddenly gained the attention of the region. Three straight losses to Harding, Bloomfield and Kolbe to start the season left Newtown at 0-3. But the quality of Newtown’s play during that stretch suggested it would rebound to have a fine season. And, thanks to two fine individual efforts this week, John Quinn and Co appear to be on to something special.

“Personally, this is very satisfying for us,” Quinn said. “It’s not easy to go 0-3 when you know you’re pretty good. That’s why this tournament is so gratifying because I felt we earned it.”

On Tuesday, Godoy was unconscious from the field (hitting six three pointers) and Newtown pulled away in the fourth quarter to hand Staples its first loss of the season, 73-61. The victory avenged last year’s 47-43 tournament finale loss to the Westport team.

In Newtown’s 81-68 win over New Fairfield Monday, tournament MVP Fiscella canned seven three-pointers and converted on 11-of-14 from the free throw line to become the first Newtown player to hit for 40 points in a game since Marv Shreders, who did it way back in 1952.

Fiscella’s heroics offset a fine effort by the Rebels, who held the lead for much of the first half before Fiscella drilled four consecutive three pointers in the second quarter. Fiscella scored 16 points in the second quarter, then added another 14 in the third to put the game away. In addition to his outside shooting, Fiscella used a quick first step to beat his defenders to the hoop. The 6-2 forward converted more than a half dozen three-point plays in the past three games. The junior forward is now averaging 20 points per game.

“You talk about being in the zone. He was just outstanding. He hit six threes in a row,” Quinn said. “Here’s a kid who’s played year round since he was in fourth grade.”

Fiscella said it was simply a case of having a good night, but it didn’t start out that way.

“I was real uptight early on. I wasn’t playing real well. I had a couple of turnovers and coach took me out. When I came back in the second quarter, I knew I had to start scoring more. We didn’t want to lose to New Fairfield at all,” said Fiscella, who credited the passing of Rich Engel and Bret McEvoy. “I just started feeling it.”

Fiscella’s seven three pointers is believed to be a school record.

Staples watched from the sidelines as Fiscella lit it up against New Fairfield, so the Wreckers were determined to prevent it from happening again. And, for the most part, the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference (FCIAC) team held Fiscella in check (even though he scored 19 points). But they forgot about Godoy (18.6 ppg), who buried three three-pointers to start the game and had tallied 15 points by the end of the first quarter. He scored nine more in the third quarter.

“We kind of thought that might happen because we figured they might key on John and I said, `Jay, you may have a big night and he did,’” Quinn said.

With the game still close in the third quarter, Quinn turned to junior point guard Andrew Smith, who had his finest varsity performance of his career. Smith scored six points and rang up a handful of assists as Newtown pulled away.

Starting point guard McEvoy, who helped to hold Staples’ high flying Mike McCurdy to 14 points, finally got a well-deserved rest and ended up being Smith’s biggest cheerleader from the bench. McCurdy single-handedly beat Newtown last year with 31 points.

Courtney Steele (11.8 ppg) continues to be the most dominant big man on the floor in Newtown’s games and he tossed in 12 points to go along with numerous rebounds.

Newtown’s bench played a large factor in the New Fairfield win as sophomore John Wesley scored nine points and sophomore Josh Dittmar added eight.

Suddenly, the Nighthawks are 2-3 and people are talking about this squad being the most balanced team to come out of Newtown in several years. It all starts with Steele, Godoy and Fiscella who are averaging 50.5 points between them. Engel and McEvoy have been responsible for the team’s disciplined half-court offense and hard-nosed defense. A solid bench has contributed 9.2 points per game.

“When we set this schedule, the first three games we knew were going to be tough, but I really believe you get better when you play tough teams. So far so good. The formula is working,” Quinn said.

Fiscella and Godoy of Newtown, Tom Bulan of New Fairfield, Nick Chiacos of East Lyme, and Mike McCurdy and Dave Kashetta of Staples made up the all-tournament team.

Newtown was scheduled to face Immaculate in a key early-season matchup Thursday night at home. It then heads to Southbury to take on a strong Pomperaug team next Tuesday before heading to Stratford next Friday.

 

STAPLES 12   13   15   21 - 61

NHS       20   11   22   20 - 73

STAPLES (61): Michael McCurdy 4 5-6 14, Sean Mukahy 5 1-2 11, David Fashetta 12 0-0 24, Greg Loft 4 0-0 9, Jordan Schur 1 0-0 3, Bobby Lynch 0 0-0 0, Ryan Evan 0 0-0 0, Matt Katz 0 0-0 0, Steve Haberstroh 0 0-0 0. Totals: 26 6-8 61.

NEWTOWN (73): Rich Engel 2 1-2 5, Courtney Steele 3 4-8 12, Jason Godoy 11 3-4 31, John Fiscella 5 7-12 19, Bret McEvoy 0 0-0 0, Josh Dittmar 0 0-0 0, John Wesley 0 0-0 0, Andrew Smith 1 4-7 6, Ryan Walker 0 0-0 0, Jeff Wolcott 0 0-0 0. Totals: 22 19-23-73.

3-Pointers: Godoy (N) 6, Fiscella (N) 2, Steele (N) 2, McCurdy (S), Loft (S), Schur (S).

 

NFHS     16   18    16  18 - 68

NHS       11   25   24   21 - 81

NEW FAIRFIELD (68): Tom Bulan 8 7-7 26, PJ Schlosser 1 0-0 3, Rob Curran 5 3-4 14, Steve Mylnar 3 2-2 8, Ryan Skelly 0 1-2 1, Brian Dimond 1 1-3 3, Don Smith 1 1-2 3, Spencer McKinney 0 0-0 0, Chris Katkocin 1 0-0 3. Totals: 24 15-20 68.

NEWTOWN (81): Rich Engel 0 1-3 1, Courtney Steele 4 3-4 11, Jason Godoy 4 0-0 8, John Fiscella 11 11-14 40, Bret McEvoy 1 2-2 4, Josh Dittmar 3 2-2 8, John Wesley 4 1-2 9, Jeff Wolcott 0 0-0 0, Andrew Smith 0 0-0 0, Ryan Walker 0 0-0 0. Totals: 27 20-28 81.

3-Pointers: Fiscella (N) 7, Bulan (NF) 2, Schlosser (NF), Curran (NF), Katkocin (NF).