GREENFIELD — The start wasn’t what the New Palestine Dragons had hoped for, but the final result was precisely what they envisioned.
Fueled by an 18-point second quarter and the hustle play of senior Addi Jones, the Dragons manufactured a 15-2 run to break an early six-all tie and defeated Hoosier Heritage Conference foe Greenfield-Central, 47-28, on Thursday night.
Jones finished with a double-double behind 10 points and 10 rebounds, and junior Rachel Kelley had a team-high 11 points off the bench to lock down the Dragons’ fifth straight win and fourth consecutive against an HHC opponent.
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New Palestine (7-2, 4-0 HHC) had already knocked off league foes New Castle, Delta and Shelbyville. Greenfield-Central was the fourth for the Dragons in the past 10 days.
“Coach wants us to do well in the HHC, and we have a lot of good teams coming up, who we want to beat, so we’re playing hard,” Jones said. “We wanted to beat this team, and we were confident we could, but it was humbling, knowing we were tied and that we had to pick it up in the second.”
Jones went all-in, opening the second quarter with several possession-saving dives on the floor and defensively, challenging on both the perimeter and in the paint.
Her outside shooting gave the Dragons a boost with a pair of 3-pointers in the third quarter as New Palestine pushed the lead to 23 points by fourth.
Kelley went a perfect 4-for-4 from the field in the second quarter, posting nine points alone, including one of New Palestine’s five 3-pointers on the night.
“She played great in the first half and shot really well tonight,” Dragons head coach Sarah Gizzi remarked on Kelley’s effort. “Addi played awesome as well. Rebounding, hit some nice jump shots, and she plays really solid defense.”
The Dragons’ defense invigorated their offense after an inconsistent opening eight minutes. In the first, New Palestine shot 3 of 11 from the field before generating transition baskets to go 7-for-10 in the second and 20-for-46 in the game at 43 percent.
“Defense is keeping us in games when we’re not shooting real well, so that effort has keyed our success,” Gizzi said. “I think, when we push some buckets in transition, it’s from our hard man-to-man defense that’s setting the tone for us.”
The Dragons thrived with a widespread team effort. Eight different players scored at least two points, and they out-rebounded the Cougars 30-20. Alaina Miller provided eight points as the bench produced 23 points overall.
“We’re working on keeping our confidence up and knowing not everyone has to score to play by doing the intangible things like rebounding and steals, outside defense,” Jones said.
Focusing on the extra pass helped the Dragons breakdown the Cougars’ defense in the final 24 minutes.
“We want to be a better starting team, but we’re just kind of slow starting off. I thought that we did start really well against Shelbyville in the last game (winning 48-41 on Tuesday), and I was kind of hoping we could build off of that, but we didn’t,” Gizzi said. “But, with that zone, sometimes it takes a little bit to figure things out at first, finding those opportunities.”
The Cougars (2-7, 0-2 HHC) used the Dragons’ initial adjustment to keep it close, overcoming a 6-2 deficit to tie the game by the end of the first quarter.
Aryana Hibbard scored a team-high 10 points, shooting 3 of 6 from the field with two 3-pointers and two free throws. Greenfield-Central converted 9 of 14 free throws with four of them aiding in deadlocking the score prior to the second quarter.
Brooke Herrell had seven points and four rebounds for the Cougars, while Addison Hill added six points and three rebounds.
“The first seven games of the season I thought our defense was great. And, somewhere along the line, it hasn’t been as good. Against Pendleton (on Saturday), we struggled, even against Lapel (last Thursday), we let them in our zone too much before we won,” Greenfield-Central head coach Bradley Key said. “I thought in the first quarter, our zone was great tonight. We did a good job of working and talking and getting our hands up. The second quarter, we kind of struggled.”
Grace Marshall had three points for the Dragons. Faith Hensel provided four points and Anna Ackerman had three. Isabella Gizzi added two points, and Whitney Miller had four.
Jones led the team in rebounding and hauled in seven in the first half with her aggressiveness on both ends of the court as the Dragons’ margin grew to 24-10 by halftime.
“She’s a very good athlete, and she’s played a lot of basketball on some good teams. She knows what’s happening before it happens, and we’re trying to get our players there,” Key said. “She was a difference maker on the floor for them, for sure.”
The Dragons will need an all-out effort again next week Thursday at Franklin Central and later at rival Mt. Vernon, the defending HHC champions, on Dec. 19 to conclude their five-game road trip, not including the Noblesville Holiday tournament on Dec. 30.
New Palestine’s next home game isn’t until Jan. 2, 2021.
“We have some really tough games coming up, so we have lots of work to do,” Gizzi said.
The Cougars travel to HHC opponent Shelbyville on Tuesday and host league affiliate Delta on Dec. 19.
