NEW PALESTINE — Minutes after her New Palestine Dragons locked down their sixth straight victory, head coach Sarah Gizzi turned her attention to the game’s final eight minutes.
Even after the Class 4A Dragons defeated rival Greenfield-Central 43-35 on Friday night to improve to 4-0 in the Hoosier Heritage Conference, Gizzi zeroed in on the flaws.
A 9-0 run to start the night put New Palestine in position to win early, and a 10-0 run to open the second half put the Dragons up by 16 points. However, Gizzi wasn’t fond of the Cougars’ late charge.
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“I think about that a lot. When do I go, awesome game? I wonder if a lot of coaches do that?,” Gizzi asked with a laugh. “People around me remind me all the time that, ‘You’re winning. Your girls are doing great.’ And they are. I’m really proud of them, but I just know we’re ready to make a little jump and see some improvement.”
The strides made so far equated into a pair of double-digit scorers with senior Jordan Reid pouring in a team-high 15 points followed by freshman Isabella Gizzi’s 12.
The duo was responsible for 15 of New Palestine’s 21 first-half points, and added another six as the Dragons surged ahead 31-15 in the third quarter.
Reid finished with nine rebounds, and Gizzi had four assists and five rebounds, while Faith Henzel hauled in 10 rebounds and chipped in four points. Addi Jones had six points.
But the Dragons’ 11 turnovers in the second half and eight in the fourth quarter were too much for Sarah Gizzi to overlook.
“There’s always something to work on,” she said.
The unforced errors opened the door for the Cougars (2-7), especially senior Hannah Farrell, who scored a game-high 19 points.
Farrell was limited to 3 points in the first half as Crystal Peterson racked up 7 of her eventual 11 points. Instead, the senior guard waited for her opening and dished out five assists and had seven rebounds overall in the interim.
Once her openings appeared, she went to work with 10 points in the fourth quarter.
“I thought we did a great job in the first half. You know she’s going to get some buckets, so it’s not a surprise she’s going to make some things happen,” Sarah Gizzi said. “We got in a little bit of foul trouble there, so we couldn’t be quite as aggressive. And that changes things a little bit, too.”
Farrell cut the deficit to 10 with a transition steal and a layup. She buried a 3-pointer with 1 minute and 14 second remaining, but the Cougars couldn’t close the gap.
“There’s something to be said about being used to winning. Right now, we’re on the other side of that,” Cougars head coach Bradley Key said. “That’s hard. We got to get on a winning track. I like the way we continue to compete. We just got to figure out how to win.”
The Dragons haven’t lost since falling to Lawrence North at home 53-35 on Nov. 23. Four of their past six wins have put them atop the HHC.
“Being 4-0 in the conference is fantastic,” Gizzi said. “I’m not complaining about that. That’s for sure.”
