Weston, CT — Nighthawk Boys’ Cagers Bounce Back From Adversity With Blowout Win By Andy Hutchison Published: Jan 28, 2022 01:00 PM Newtown High School’s boys’ basketball team sandwiched its worst loss of the season with its two most lopsided victories, bouncing back from a 52-28 defeat to visiting Immaculate of Danbury on Friday, January 21 with a convincing 77-44 win at Weston on January 25. Riding a five-game winning streak, things were going swimmingly for the Nighthawks. Even early in the Immaculate clash, the Nighthawks continued flying high with a lead. But then everything came apart. Standout player Isaiah Williams left the game with an injury, Immaculate took over, and handed Newtown a 52-28 loss — this on the heels of Newtown’s most complete game and dominant victory of the campaign, a 72-31 triumph over Bethel three days earlier. “Every season you’re going to see adversity. You’ve got to get through adversity,” Newtown Coach Tim Tallcouch said after the Immaculate game. Tallcouch was pleased with the way his team bounced back against Weston, improving to 7-3 overall in the process. “Being a solid team you really have only one choice after Friday night — come back next game and reestablish the good vibes and march on. The talk at practice and prior to the game was that we wanted to dictate pace on both sides of the ball and come out laser sharp from the tip. The team did. I’m very happy about that,” Newtown’s coach said. The Nighthawks got the win despite Williams remaining sidelines; he is out indefinitely, Tallcouch said. Against Immaculate, Newtown got 11 points from Makai Coleman, five points from Joe McCray, and four apiece from Liam O’Connell and Tyson Mobley. It was 28-9 Immaculate at the half and the Mustangs never let the Nighthawks back in the game. “Give Immaculate and [Coach Nelson Mingachos] their due. They outplayed us in every facet of the game,” Tallcouch said. Wins are nice but teams can grow from defeats and therefore challenging contests, regardless of outcome, can be beneficial. “As long as we learn and we get better from it,” the NHS coach said. At Weston, Newtown broke the game open in the second quarter with a 24-7 burst keyed by solid man pressure defense, said Tallcouch, who was able to play the entire bench by the fourth quarter. The Hawks shot 32-for-50 from the field which helped reward the defense, Tallcouch noted. Mobley dropped in 22 points to go along with three assists and a trio of steals; O’Connell scored 16 points and had three rebounds; McCray logged 11 points, four rebounds, and three assists; Coleman scored 11 and had six rebounds; Declan Regan had six points and four rebounds; Saahil Ray scored five points and had three rebounds; and Elijah Williams added four points and five rebounds. The Hawks are scheduled to play four games in seven days, beginning Friday, January 28, on the road against what Tallcouch said is a very solid Masuk of Monroe squad; tipoff is at 5 pm (moved up from the original 7 pm start time due to anticipated snow). That is followed by back-to-back home games with a strong Stratford team, which is 8-3 (Monday, January 31 at 7 pm), followed by 8-2 Amity in a non league makeup (Tuesday, February 1 at 5:30 pm), and ending on the road with always tough Notre Dame-Fairfield (Thursday, February 3 at 7 pm). Notre Dame is a deceptive 5-6 overall, having lost some tough nonconference tilts, and also having beaten Immaculate 63-60. “Key stretch for us,” Tallcouch noted. Sports Editor Andy Hutchison can be reached at [email protected].