New Palestine Steele Brasfield walks off the court after their victory against Muncie Central during the first round of the IHSAA Class 4A Sectional 9 tournament. Tuesday, March 1, 2022.
Tom Russo | Daily Reporter
GREENFIELD — It’s high school basketball tournament time, no one goes down without a fight.
New Palestine found that out firsthand Tuesday night in its 63-57 Class 4A Sectional 9 quarterfinal victory over Muncie Central at Greenfield-Central’s Dellen Automotive Gymnasium.
The Dragons picked up win No. 18 on the season, while the Bearcats finish their 2021-22 campaign 4-19.
“It was tough. They kept fighting from the beginning,” New Palestine junior guard Blaine Nunnally said. “We got in some trouble in the first quarter and we locked in on defense. That was the big part after that.
“We had a couple places in the third quarter where we got lackadaisical on defense and gave up some easy ones. Other than that, they were hitting shots. We were hitting shots.”
Nunnally hit a lot of his key shots at the free-throw line. After missing his first two — with his Dragons holding on to a 45-44 lead with 6:31 to go — he connected on eight in a row to help seal the win.
He finished with a season-high 27 points.
“We’ve been here before and practice every day on the free-throw line, but it doesn’t compare to sectional free throws. It’s a totally different thing. After the first two, I felt pretty good,” Nunnally added.
As Nunnally mentioned, the Dragons have been here before.
They won the sectional in 2019 and 2020. Nunnally and teammate Steele Brasfield, a senior, have both been big parts of the Dragon team since their freshmen seasons.
Brasfield finished with 14 points. Another varsity vet, Ian Stephens scored nine, while frosh Ben Slagley scored seven.
“The thing that has been going well for us the last couple of weeks has been our composure and poise,” New Palestine coach Trent Whitaker said. “We’ve got guys that have been playing for a long time now, Blaine, Steele and Ian Stephens, those three guys have been through it and been battle-tested. They have a lot of composure. They don’t panic and they are ready for the big moment.”
Blaine Nunnally’s first five free throws stretched the New Pal lead to 50-44. Twin brother Bryant Nunnally scored off an offensive rebound to make it 52-44 with 2:52 remaining.
A Brasfield bucket, two more Blaine Nunnally free throws, and a conventional three-point play from the game-high scorer put the Dragons up 59-46 with 57 seconds left.
Muncie Central hit three 3s in the final 25 seconds to cut it down to the final margin.
“Muncie Central is scrappy and they are not going to give up. They don’t quit. They took (Class 3A No. 6) New Castle to double overtime and Marion to overtime,” Whitaker said. “They’re on the cusp of turning things around, but we were able to hang on.”
The Dragons took an 11-point lead, 44-33, with 2:50 to go in the third on a conventional three-point play from Stephens, but the Bearcats were able to knock it down to six, 45-39, by the end of the quarter.
Bearcat junior Malik Hasani, who finished with 24 points, started the second-half run to get his team close. He had 15 points in the final two periods.
After finishing the first quarter strong, the Dragons picked up where they left off with a 12-2 run to start the second. Brasfield and Blaine Nunnally each had 3s during that time and combined for 10 of the 12 points. Slagley scored the first two points of the period.
It was 25-13 in the Dragons favor when the Bearcats put on a rally of their own. Muncie Central scored 10 straight prior to Blaine Nunnally quieting the Cats. The Nunnally bucket started another stretch of Dragon points.
New Pal scored the last six of the half and led 31-23 at intermission.
Off to a good start, Muncie Central was quickly proving it was much better than its win-loss record showed. The Bearcats scored the game’s first six points and led by six on two occasions in the opening period.
New Palestine didn’t score until the 4:49 mark when Slagley finished an offensive rebound with a bucket. The Dragons scored 11 of the final 14 points of the period and took the lead for the first time on a Brasfield 3 with 38 seconds to go. It gave New Pal a 13-11 advantage.
Ja’lon Childress was also in double figures for Muncie Central with 10 points.
The Dragons will take on Richmond Friday in the first of two semifinal games at 6 p.m. The Dragons lost to the Red Devils, 60-55, in their season opener at Richmond on Nov. 24.
“When you talk about winning championships it’s one step at a time and the first step was Muncie Central,” Whitaker said. “Now, it’s on to Richmond.”
In the first meeting against Richmond, played at Tiernan Center, Brasfield had 21 and Blaine Nunnally scored 15. Richmond was led by Mason Carpenter and Stephan Douglas with 18 and 17, respectively.
Two more quarterfinal games take place today. Defending sectional champion and Class 4A No. 7 Mt. Vernon plays Pendleton Heights at 6 p.m. Host Greenfield-Central, winners of nine in a row, follows with a matchup against No. 10 Anderson.
The tournament championship game is 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
New Palestine 63, Muncie Central 57
Muncie Central;11;12;16;18;—;57
New Palestine;13;18;14;18;—;63
Muncie Central (4-19): Tim Arnold 3 0-0 7, Malik Hasani 10 0-0 24, Antonio Gore 0 2-2 2, Ja’lon Childress 4 0-0 10, Brady McNabb 1 0-0 3, Princeton Young 0 0-0 0, Shoka Griffin 3 2-2 9, BJ Isom 0 0-0 0, Isaiah Serf 1 0-0 2. Totals: 22 4-4 57.
New Palestine (18-6): Steele Brasfield 6 0-4 14, Ian Stephens 2 5-6 9, Ben Slagley 3 1-2 7, Blaine Nunnally 8 8-10 27, Bryant Nunnally 1 0-0 2, Damon Hockett 0 0-0 0, Eian Roudebush 0 0-0 0, Kendall Hill 0 0-0 0, Logan Strong 1 0-0 2, Jaret Whitaker 0 0-0 0, Moses Haynes 0 2-2 2. Totals: 21 16-24 63.
3-point goals: Muncie Central 9 (Hasani 4, Childress 2, Arnold, McNabb, Griffin); New Palestine 5 (Bl. Nunnally 3, Brasfield 2)
