New Palestine’s Isabella Gizzi (11) and Greenfield-Central’s Aryana Hibbard (13) battle for the ball during their game at New Palestine High School on Friday, Dec. 10, 2021. (Rob Baker/Daily Reporter)
NEW PALESTINE — There’s an old adage that says when two rivals meet, you can throw the records out the door.
New Palestine girls basketball coach Sarah Gizzi is a proponent of that saying.
Led by a strong second-half defensive performance, her Dragons came back from a halftime deficit to defeat Hancock County neighbors Greenfield-Central, 43-32, in front of a lively crowd at New Palestine High School Friday.
With the win, the Dragons improved to 7-4 overall and 2-2 in the Hoosier Heritage Conference. Greenfield-Central dropped to 1-8 and 0-2 in the HHC.
“I told (Greenfield-Central coach) Bradley Key, our girls and anybody that wanted to hear, that it doesn’t matter what our records are, or what time of season we play. Every time we play it’s a close game,” coach Gizzi said. “It’s fun, exciting, and frustrating sometimes.
“I think we made some good adjustments at halftime and wore them down a little bit with our pressure … It was a crazy environment and it was nice to be in our gym.”
The game was much more competitive than the final score might indicate.
New Palestine led just once in the first half and didn’t grab the lead for good until an Isabelle Gizzi 3-pointer with six minutes remaining put the home team up 29-28.
The teams traded leads three times in the third quarter before the period ended in a tie, 26-26.
To start the fourth, Aryana Hibbard scored to put the Cougars up 28-26, before Gizzi’s trey led to the sixth and final lead change of the contest.
Greenfield-Central had two five-point leads in the first quarter, 5-0 and 10-5. There were two ties and one lead changes in the first 16 minutes. Tied 19-19, Cougar frosh Chaney Brown scored on a conventional three-point play to give the Cougars a 22-19 halftime lead. Brown had 15 of the team’s 22 points.
One of three frosh starters for the Cougars, Brown led all scorers with 21 points.
“It was a tough one (to lose),” Key said. “We’ve been playing better the last several games. They are starting to understand what we want to do with the basketball. Which is a tremendous difference from the beginning of the year. We were doing a good job of getting the ball to good spots on offense, but we’re doing a good job for three quarters and not four.
“That’s part of the learning experience we’re going through right now. I thought New Pal’s press caused us some problems.”
In the second half, the points came much harder for the Cougars and the Dragon press had a lot to do with it.
New Palestine’s pressure defense helped force 18 second-half turnovers and 29 for the game. Greenfield-Central was able to score just 10 points in the final two quarters.
“They’re young and that’s part of being young,” coach Gizzi said. “You have freshman playing against juniors and seniors who are tough and physical. Their young girls are going to be very good players. They already are. I know from the start of the season to now, they are a much-improved team.”
The Cougars had a pretty strong defensive effort, too.
They helped hold Gizzi, a junior standout, to 14 points. She came in averaging 22.3 points per game. The Dragons got plenty of scoring support from Gizzi’s teammates. Senior Rachel Kelley had 12 points and senior Alaina Miller had 11, including nine in the second half.
“I thought we did a tremendous job on Gizzi,” Key said of his Cougars defensive performance. “She’s one of the better players around. You can watch games where she has dominated. I thought we had a great team effort (guarding her). Josie White, a freshman for us, just battled with her all night.”
It was New Palestine’s eighth straight win in the rivalry. G-C’s last victory came six years ago, a 54-38 Cougar triumph.
The Dragons continue a stretch of county rivalry and conference games with a Tuesday matchup, at home, against Mt. Vernon.
Greenfield-Central returns to action with a Tuesday home conference matchup, too. The Cougars will play host to Shelbyville.
New Palestine 43, Greenfield-Central 32
Greenfield-Central;10;12;4;6;—;32
New Palestine;7;12;7;17;—;43
Greenfield-Central (1-8, 0-2): Chaney Brown 9 2-3 21, Aryanna Hibbard 3 0-0 6, Audrey Pechin 0 0-2 0, Brooklyn McConnell 0 2-3 2, Josie White 1 0-0 3, Annan Tiede 0 0-0 0, Taylor Smith 0 0-0 0. Totals: 13 4-8 32.
New Palestine (7-4, 2-2): Rachel Kelley 5 1-2 12, Allie Blum 2 0-0 4, Alaina Miller 4 2-4 11, Isabelle Gizzi 3 7-8, 14, Vivian Miller 1 0-0 2, Taylor Kelley 0 0-0 0. Totals: 15 10-14 43.
3-point goals: Greenfield-Central 2 (Brown, McConnell); New Palestine 3 (R. Kelley, A. Miller, Gizzi)
