Double-digit scorers key Dragons’ win over Greensburg

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New Palestine’s Rachel Kelley drives past against Roncalli at the Girls Basketball Winter Classic at Plainfield High School on Thursday, Dec. 30, 2021.

Tom Russo | Daily Reporter

PLAINFIELD — Three is the key.

When New Palestine’s girls basketball team can get three scorers in double figures — or at least a third player close to the 10-point mark — there’s a good chance the Dragons are going home with the win.

That was the case in Thursday’s consolation game of the Plainfield Girls Basketball Winter Classic.

After losing 58-45 in the tournament opener earlier in the morning against Roncalli, New Palestine went .500 on the day with a 66-60 victory over Greensburg in the third-place game.

For the seventh time this season, New Palestine had three players score in double figures. The Dragons are 6-1 in those games. They are 9-7 overall. They had two double-digit scorers and a third player with seven points or more in the other three victories.

Junior Isabella Gizzi led all scorers with 28 points. Senior Alaina Miller added 15 and sophomore Allie Blum scored a career-best 14, to go with 10 rebounds.

In the loss to Roncalli, the Dragons got 24 from Gizzi and 15 from Miller, but only six points from the rest of the team.

New Palestine had the game’s top two scorers, but Roncalli had nine players in the scoring column and three in double figures. Claire Lindsey led the Royals with 13. Sydney Horton and Tori Candler had 12 points apiece.

“The games that we’ve had success we’ve had three,” New Palestine head coach Sarah Gizzi said. “A lot of the games it has been Bella, Alaina and Rachel (Kelley). We talked about that between games. We have to have that third girl at eight or 10 (points) or more. It doesn’t matter what three it is. You have to have multiple girls.

“Our issue, in the (Roncalli game), we had two girls in the higher double figures and no one else had more than two. It wasn’t from a lack of trying. We got great shots, we just didn’t knock them down.”

They were knocking them down in the consolation matchup, and so were the Pirates. The Dragons led after a high-scoring first quarter, 26-23. Greensburg had five first-quarter 3-pointers.

By halftime, the Dragons already had their three at near 10 points or higher. Isabella Gizzi led with 15. Miller had nine and Blum had scored eight.

Greensburg cut New Pal’s lead to one point, 32-31, with 2:18 left in the half. Gizzi answered with a bucket off a rebound, another two-pointer and a trey with two seconds left in the half to extend the lead to 39-31 at the break.

Every time the Pirates would inch closer, the Dragons were able to gain some breathing room.

In the third quarter, Pirate freshman Leah West, who finished the game with 26 points, scored with 4:23 left to finish a 6-0 run and cut the Dragons lead to 41-37. New Palestine answered with a pair of free throws from Miller and a bucket from Blum.

Late in the quarter, after Greensburg cut the lead to six, 47-41 with 1:35 to go, Blum scored, then assisted on a Miller bucket to send the New Pal lead back to 10.

Gizzi had 11 of her points in the fourth quarter. West had cut the Dragons lead to 57-51 with 2:42 to go. On the Dragons next possession, the junior guard ate some clock then drove the lane for a successful layup. She got fouled on the play and added the free throw for a 60-51 lead with only 1:51 remaining.

Again, the Pirates knocked it down to six, 61-55 with 1:10 on the clock, but Kelley hit a short jumper to up the margin to eight, 61-53, with only 43 seconds left.

Another Greensburg frosh, Mylie Wilkinson, finished with 20 points. She hit a 3-pointer with 10 seconds to go to cut the New Pal lead to four, 64-60, but the coach’s daughter followed with a pair of free throws for the final scoring.

“I feel like that is something we do quite a bit. We get a little bit of a lead and then we give it up. Or, we allow a team to jump out in front of us and we’re kind of scrapping from behind,” coach Gizzi said. “I don’t think we ever make it easy on ourselves. I was really pleased that we hit some big free throws and we had some different girls step up.”

Greensburg dropped to 4-12 with the loss. The Pirates were defeated by host Plainfield in the morning 59-31.

The Dragons are hopeful the win will give them some momentum heading into the 2022 portion of the schedule, which will be very challenging.

With just seven games left in the regular season, the Dragons return to play Jan. 5 with a road game at Class 4A No. 6 Fishers. They are back home on Jan. 11 for a matchup against Class 2A No. 4 Triton Central, then welcome Pendleton Heights, who is 6-0 in the Hoosier Heritage Conference. The Dragons are 3-3 in HHC play.

A third straight home game is Jan. 18 against Class 2A No. 7 Eastern Hancock. The Dragons go on the road to face two strong Indianapolis schools, Cathedral (Jan. 22) and Lawrence Central (Jan. 24), before wrapping up the regular season, at home, on Jan. 25, in a rematch against Greensburg.

“It’s the best thing for us to get on the bus and go home with a win,” coach Gizzi said. “We had two tough games today. The girls are improving and learning in each game trying to gear up for these tough challenges.

“I hate to over emphasize wins and losses, but we got a great win at Yorktown (on Dec. 18) and played really well. We lost a tough game this morning to a strong Roncalli team and beat a young Greensburg team that is going to be really good. It’s a nice way to finish after the loss to Mt. Vernon (Dec. 14). It helps lift the spirits. We have a few days off now and will come back on Monday and see what we can do.”