NEW PALESTINE — Turnovers were contagious for the New Palestine Dragons on Tuesday.
Lawrence Central took advantage of mistakes in bunches to defeat the host Dragons, 58-47, at New Palestine High School.
In particular, after the Dragons got within four points late in the third quarter on back-to-back 3-pointers from Anna Ackerman and Isabella Gizzi, the Bears scored twice off steals in the final 40 seconds of the period to take a 42-34 lead into the final quarter.
“We were talking about having multiple mistakes in a row. That was one of our focal points after the game,” New Palestine head coach Sarah Gizzi said. “We talked about before the game, you can’t let the wheels fly off your cart. We have a tendency when one person makes a mistake, we make another one, then we miss a layup, or have a bad pass. That’s something we’re trying to reduce.”
Isabella Gizzi hit another 3-pointer to start the fourth period, but Lawrence Central followed by scoring 11 of the next 13 points, taking its biggest lead of the game, 53-39 with 2:02 remaining.
“LC did everything they needed to do to win that game,” coach Gizzi said. “They pressured us when they needed to. They forced turnovers when they needed it. They rebounded well, knocked down 3s. They did what they needed to do and we fell short in a couple areas.”
Closing out quarters hurt the Dragons earlier in the game, too.
In the first quarter, tied 11-11 with three minutes to go, Lawrence Central went on a 7-0 run before the Dragons were able to cut the deficit to 18-14 heading into the second.
Tied 23-23 with 2:11 left in the half, the Bears went on a 9-2 run to take a 32-25 halftime lead.
In the fourth quarter, the Dragons were able score off some late Bears’ turnovers, but the deficit proved to be too much to come back from.
“My girls always play really hard,” coach Gizzi added. “Maybe we waited a little bit too long to put that burst on. They started to kill some clock and that was tough on us.”
Lawrence Central helped force 23 New Palestine turnovers, 16 came in the second half, nine were in the third quarter.
“I think it was just decision-making,” the coach said of the Dragons’ turnovers. “Sometimes that soft pressure is almost worse. It forces you to second-guess what you’re doing and get sped up. We talked about not getting sped up, you have time, stay balanced, gathered. Those are things we have to work on.”
New Palestine fell to 12-9 overall. Lawrence Central snapped a five-game losing streak and evened its record at 10-10. Three of the losses came to teams ranked in the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association Top 20 poll: No. 1 North Central, No. 10 Noblesville and No. 16 defending state champion Lawrence North.
Isabella Gizzi led all scorers with 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Addi Jones had a double-double with 10 points and 11 boards. Grace Marshall scored nine points. Faith Hensel added five points and Ackerman scored three.
The Bears were led in scoring by Da’Maria Washington and Victoria Smiley with 15 points each. Kavonna Kirby, a 6-foot-2 post player, five inches taller than New Palestine’s tallest player (Hensel at 5-9), scored 12 and grabbed nine rebounds before fouling out.
The Dragons wrap up their regular season Thursday with a varsity-only game, at home, against Cardinal Ritter. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
They begin postseason play in Class 4A Sectional 9, hosted by Muncie Central, on Wednesday, Feb. 3 against Anderson, a rematch of last year’s sectional championship game won by the Dragons.
