NEW PALESTINE — Maximus Gizzi hit another milestone Friday.
He would have traded it for a victory.
Gizzi, the outstanding New Palestine senior guard headed to Marian University, became the Dragons all-time leading scorer earlier this season. He also owns the school’s career marks for steals and assists.
Against Roncalli, on New Palestine’s Homecoming night, Gizzi set a new personal career-best in points, 36, but it wasn’t enough in a 63-58 loss to the Rebels.
“I don’t really care about the points. I just want to win the game,” Gizzi said.
With the score tied 35-35 heading into the fourth quarter, Roncalli hit its first six field-goal attempts and built an eight-point cushion, 48-40.
The Dragons battled back, led by Gizzi’s 18 fourth-quarter points, but the Rebels were able to seal it by hitting 13-of-15 free throws in the final 1:35.
“We gave up some easy buckets (to start the fourth quarter) and kind of let go of our guard on defense a little bit,” Gizzi, who came into Friday’s contest averaging 23.5 points per game, said. “I think that really swayed the game and from then on we were playing catch-up.”
Gizzi was 12-of-19 from the field (63.1 percent) and 10-of-10 at the free-throw line. He was 2-of-4 from 3-point range.
“He played well and puts this team on his back quite a bit,” New Palestine coach Trent Whitaker said. “Unfortunately some other guys didn’t hit shots like they do sometimes and we fell short.”
Roncalli hit 7-of-8 shots in the fourth quarter. Rebels’ big man, 6-foot-7 senior Daniel Asher was 4-of-4 from the field in the period and finished with 18 points, sharing Roncalli scoring honors with junior guard Anthony Donahue.
Asher scored all four of his final-period field goals during an 11-4 run that turned his team’s 39-38 lead to 50-42 with just 1:58 remaining.
“It was tied after three and we wanted to get off to a good start,” Roncalli coach Michael Wantz said. “We took care of it and hit our free throws, which is what you have to do at the end of the game.”
The Dragons were the hot-shooting team in the second quarter. They went on a 13-0 run, getting three 3-pointers from three different players, turning a 13-7 deficit into a 20-13 lead.
Sophomore Steele Brasfield started the stretch with the first of the treys. After Dawson Eastes scored on a putback, Eric Roudebush — from a Blaine Nunnally assist — and Gizzi added long range connections. Gizzi followed with a bucket off his own steal to give New Pal its seven-point advantage.
The Dragons took a five-point lead into halftime, 27-22.
Gizzi had 22 of the Dragons 31 second-half points. Eastes had seven of his 12 in the final two periods.
“What I think we did a nice job of was not letting anybody (other than Gizzi) get well above their average,” Wantz added. “I’d be lying if I told you our plan was to let him get as many as he wants, but Eastes just getting 12 and no one else had above five.”
After a rough start to the season, New Palestine had won three of its last four, including key Hoosier Heritage Conference wins against Delta and Pendleton Heights. Friday’s loss drops the Dragons record to 5-10.
Roncalli, which came in on a two-game losing streak, improved to 6-6.
“We took a step back tonight, a little bit,” Whitaker said. “The nice thing is, we have less than 24 hours to play again. We’ve got to get that taste out of our mouth and be ready to go (tonight).”
The Dragons are back in action, finishing a stretch of four straight home games, tonight with a 7:30 p.m. matchup with Franklin.
Between junior varsity and varsity games, the Dragons recognized the 40-year anniversary of the school’s 1980 sectional championship team. At the time, it was the school’s first sectional championship since 1957 and second in school history.
In attendance Friday were head coach Ed Freije, assistants John Jameson and Gary Bullman and former players Jeff Dockins, Dennis Judy, Joe Mills, Brad Wheeler and Mike Young.
