RICHMOND — After closing the regular season with one of their best defensive games in several years, New Palestine didn’t stop that momentum in Tuesday’s sectional opener.
Facing county rival Greenfield-Central, the Dragons held their conference and county foe to just four first-quarter points, opening up an eight-point lead that got to double-digits by halftime.
The Dragons needed every bit of their strong defense early.
It was a slow start for the New Palestine offense. Four minutes into the game, the Dragons trailed 2-0, missing their first six shot attempts.
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Once they got going, New Palestine started opening a bigger and bigger lead while the defense kept up the pressure. The Dragons turned a 10-point halftime lead into a 60-45 win, advancing into Friday’s sectional semifinal and ending the Cougars’ season.
“I thought we had about a two- or three-minute window there early in the game where we were getting really, really good shots, and we were forcing them into some tough ones that we wanted them to shoot,” Greenfield-Central coach Lukas Haworth said. “Unfortunately, we just couldn’t get the ball to go down. If we hit some of those and get a six-, eight-, 10-point lead on them, obviously they are good enough where they are going to come back and make it a game, but it’s going to be a different ballgame. When we missed that window of opportunity and they got rolling downhill a little bit, it made it very, very tough.”
After the 0-for-6 start to the game, New Palestine found a groove. The slow start wasn’t a huge concern for the Dragons, as they somewhat expected to struggle a bit early given the atmosphere.
“That’s the thing about sectional play,” New Palestine coach Trent Whitaker said. “We told them in the first three minutes, you’re going to have dry mouth and you’re going to be out of breath. That’s just the atmosphere of it. Any time you put a, ‘Hey, your season could end,’ on a game, it puts a little more into it.”
The Dragons finished the first quarter by making their last 5-of-7 shot attempts, opening up an early lead that they wouldn’t relinquish.
Maximus Gizzi played a big part in getting things going for the Dragons, knocking down two early 3-pointers to get New Palestine on the board.
“It’s sectional basketball in Indiana. I think that fires everybody up, obviously,” Gizzi said. "I’m used to big games. I love big games. For me, I figured you know what, if I could hit a couple of shots and get us flowing, that would help everybody out.”
Another junior provided a big spark for the Dragons off the bench.
“Maxen Hook was the one that came in and kind of changed the entire pace of the game,” Whitaker said. “Defensive rebounds, and he was the first up the floor a couple of times. It just kind of got us going.”
Hook grabbed six defensive rebounds and scored five points while dishing out a handful of assists for the Dragons.
With just a 10-point lead at the half, the Dragons were able to blow the game wide open, extending the lead to nearly 30 points, thanks in large part to a third junior, Kyle King.
King pulled down 10 rebounds, seven on the offensive end, and finished with eight points, all off putbacks.
“You know, the first half, he wasn’t really in the flow of it, but the second half, I don’t know if he got angry or what, be he just got to the point where the ball was going up and he wanted it,” Whitaker said. “He did a great job of finishing tonight. He had a lot of confidence with the basketball.”
“I didn’t play so well the first half, so I knew I had to come out and show up in the second half, help my team win,” King said. “Boards was my thing, and it turned out I got some points out of it.”
A big difference between Tuesday night and the first meeting between the teams, a 75-65 New Palestine win on Dec. 7, was the 3-point shot. After living by the 3-pointer in the first meeting, Greenfield-Central couldn’t seem to get one to fall on Tuesday.
The Cougars made one first-half 3-pointer, then didn’t hit a second until only four minutes remained in the game. Trailing big at that point and with backups starting to enter the game, Greenfield-Central’s shooters finally got hot, knocking down four late 3s to cut the final margin significantly.
“We know they’re a 3-point shooting team, so that’s what we kind of focused on all week, closing out 3-point shooters,” King said. “I think it paid off tonight.”
Three players tied to lead the game in scoring, with the Cougars’ Caleb McIntire and New Palestine’s Gizzi and Dawson Eastes all scoring 11 points.
Matthew True and King each scored eight for the Dragons, Dylan Romine had seven, Eric Roudebush and Hook had five, Jack Walker had four and Luke Ramsey had one for New Palestine.
Caleb and Brady Mundell each scored nine for Greenfield-Central, with Caleb pulling down eight rebounds and Brady adding seven. Sam Hunt, the Cougars’ lone senior, scored seven points. Jackson Findley had three and Jacob Cochran, Brock Wheeler and Will VanDuyn each added two.
The Dragons move on to Friday’s semifinal against Connersville, a 6 p.m. rematch from a Feb. 9 game that the Spartans won, 50-49. Mt. Vernon will meet Richmond in the second semifinal.
Tuesday night’s win, and the way they won, gives the Dragons a full head of steam heading into the rematch.
“It was a great win. It’s going to give us some momentum for Friday,” King said. “We’re probably going to need that for Connersville because they’re a great shooting team.”
“I think just the balanced effort from everybody keeps the other team from keying in on one guy. I think that’s huge, really,” Gizzi said. “You’re going to need multiple guys to step up to make a playoff run.”
For the Cougars, their season may be over, but the future looks bright despite the 4-20 record.
The team is set to return the entire lineup outside of Hunt next season, giving almost the full roster a year of varsity experience together and a season full of learning.
“It’s exciting because not only do we have experience to build off of, but this season proved what type of kids we have. They are hard-working, good, quality kids who support their teammates to no end, they continue to fight for one another and continue to represent the G-C name with a ton of pride,” Haworth said. “It’s very, very easy to have that type of culture and mentality whenever the wins are piling up. It’s a whole other thing to say the right things and do the right things even when you’re going through a season like this.
“That’s what makes you most proud. They never let the outcome change who they are as people. As a coach, that’s the only type of team you should ever want to coach. I couldn’t be more proud of this team and couldn’t be more thankful to be their coach.”
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New Palestine 60, Greenfield-Central 45
New Palestine;12;16;16;16;—;60
Greenfield-Central;4;14;9;18;—;45
New Palestine (15-8): Maximus Gizzi 4 1-3 11, Matthew True 3 0-0 8, Dawson Eastes 2 6-6 11, Dylan Romine 3 0-2 7, Kyle King 4 0-1 8, Eric Roudebush 2 1-2 5, Maxen Hook 2 1-2 5, Jack Walker 2 0-0 4, Luke Ramsey 0 1-2 1. Totals: 22 10-18 60.
Greenfield-Central (4-20): Jacob Cochran 1 0-0 2, Brady Mundell 3 3-5 9, Caleb Mundell 4 1-1 9, Gavin Rose 0 0-0 0, Caleb McIntire 4 0-0 11, Sam Hunt 3 0-0 7, Gavin Robertson 0 0-0 0, Chris O’Connor 0 0-0 0, Will VanDuyn 0 2-2 2, Brock Wheeler 1 0-0 2, Jackson Findley 1 0-0 3. Totals: 19 6-8 45.
3-point goals: New Palestine 6 (Gizzi 2, True 2, Eastes, Romine), Greenfield-Central 5 (McIntire 3, Hunt, Findley).
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With Richmond’s 11-point comeback win against Pendleton Heights on Tuesday, 48-45, and Shenandoah’s 52-36 win against Knightstown, three county teams remain in the tournament and know their semifinal opponents.
Friday’s games
At Richmond
6 p.m. – New Palestine (15-8) vs. Connersville (16-8)
7:30 p.m. – Mt. Vernon (10-11) vs. Richmond (12-13)
At Knightstown
6 p.m. – Indianapolis Howe (16-5) vs. Irvington Prep Academy (8-15)
7:30 p.m. – Eastern Hancock (11-11) vs. Shenandoah (22-1)
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