SOUTHPORT — Facing the biggest challenge — literally — that they’ve gone up against this season, the New Palestine Dragons fought to the end.
Just hours after winning their second regional game in program history on Saturday, a 64-59 semifinal triumph against the Avon Orioles, the Dragons faced off against Ben Davis with a regional championship on the line.
The Giants lived up to their nickname, but New Palestine wasn’t intimidated.
Like they’ve done so many times during their tournament run, like they did in the semifinal against Avon, the Dragons started out hot, jumping out to an early 9-2 lead and holding a 13-6 edge late in the first quarter.
That’s when the Giants’ size became a problem. Ben Davis scored the last nine points of the quarter to take a two-point lead. They continued the run to 13 points, turning a seven-point deficit into a six-point second quarter lead.
In search of their first regional championship ever, the Dragons kept things close, staying within single digits through the half. They fell behind by as many as a 13 points in the second half but kept clawing back.
They had chances, but they came up short. Ben Davis outlasted the Dragons, 53-47, advancing to this weekend’s semistate against Center Grove.
“We were overlooked, and we were the underdog every single game we played. I don’t think people expected us to be here,” New Palestine junior Maximus Gizzi said. “I’m proud of the way we fought, and to get to this point is incredible, one of the last eight teams. To compete with that team … that’s a state competitor right there. That feels pretty good. We feel like we had a couple of opportunities where we could have done something different and won that game, but all in all, we’re proud of everything we’ve done. Being overlooked, it feels nice to make it this far and even have an opportunity to make it farther.”
After stunning the Orioles to make it to the final, the Dragons had just a few hours to figure out how to stop a seemingly unstoppable force.
When Ben Davis pulled off a big upset over No. 2 Lawrence Central in the noon semifinal, New Palestine knew it would be going up against the Giants’ 6-foot-9, 350-pound senior, Dawand Jones.
Jones dominated Lawrence Central, scoring 23 points and adding 11 rebounds to go with a handful of blocks. He dominated New Palestine, too, scoring 24 points on 10-for-10 shooting and nabbing five rebounds.
“That’s a trump card that we don’t have,” New Palestine coach Trent Whitaker said of Jones. “We only had three hours to prepare for it. We threw in what we needed to do, but I’m not sure if there’s any preparation for that, honestly. Kid’s a nice player. He’s huge, but on top of that, he’s a basketball player. He’s not just a big guy.”
The Dragons attacked Jones early and had success on offense. Defensively they tried everything they could think of — double teams, staying in front of Jones, staying behind Jones — and forced the Giants’ center into four turnovers. But they couldn’t contain him for more than short stretches.
After their early lead evaporated, New Palestine stayed poised and, more importantly, stayed confident despite the big size mismatch. The message in team huddles was simple.
“Keep your head up and keep playing,” New Palestine senior Matthew True said. “We knew that they were going to go on runs, and we knew we could come back, every time. We have the confidence and ability to come back.”
They did, time and time again. After falling behind by double digits, Gizzi scored 11 fourth-quarter points and Dawson Eastes hit a 3-pointer to slice a late-game deficit down to four.
But the Dragons missed on opportunities to pull closer than that. Ben Davis hit enough free throws down the stretch to hold off a furious New Palestine comeback attempt, ending the Dragons’ season just one step short of semistate.
“You work so hard for these moments, you dream of these moments, so it just sucks to lose so close to such a good team,” True said. “They were so good tonight, and we just couldn’t get the job done.”
Gizzi scored 19 points to lead the Dragons against Ben Davis, crossing the 1,000-point mark for his career. True tallied 14. Dylan Romine scored seven, Eastes five and Maxen Hook had two.
In the early game, Eastes led the way for the Dragons with 20 points, including nine in the fourth quarter. Gizzi added 18 points, Romine scored 12, True added seven points, Eric Roudebush tied his career high with five points, and Kyle King and Hook scored one point each.
Much like Ben Davis did to them, New Palestine sealed the game against Avon by making 10 of 12 free throws in the fourth quarter. The New Palestine defense held Avon without a field goal for the first 7:25 of the final quarter before two late 3-pointers from the Orioles, getting the team its first regional-game win in 30 years.
“I can’t be prouder of these guys,” Whitaker said. “The effort, the fight, the toughness they showed tonight and today, playing against a school that’s five times the size of us. Our kids battled. That’s all that I can ask them to do every night, and they do that. The tears in the locker room right now, they are disappointed, but they are happy tears, too, because they know exactly what we’ve done and where we’ve come from. To be six, seven points away from a final four is incredible for us.”
New Palestine’s season ends with 18 wins and a sectional championship. They finished as one of the final eight teams left playing in the state of Indiana, and they were just a few shots away from toppling the Giants.
“The high moment was probably climbing the ladder as a team and getting to experience that,” True said. “The low was probably the loss. But through ups and down, we were with each other and together as a family. That’s the thing I’m most proud of with this team.”