New Palestine’s Ian Stephens reacts to making a shot at the end of the first quarter against Greenfield-Central at New Palestine High School on Friday, Dec. 10, 2021. (Rob Baker/Daily Reporter)
NEW PALESTINE — After Greenfield-Central battled back from a 10-point halftime deficit to take the lead, early in the fourth quarter, New Palestine coach Trent Whitaker called a timeout and gave his kids two routes to take for the final six-plus minutes of the game.
“They took the lead, so how do you respond?” Whitaker said after Friday’s matchup of Hancock County and Hoosier Heritage Conference rivals. “We called a timeout and said you have two options. You can rise to the occasion or you can sit back and watch it happen, and our kids did a nice job (of rising to the occasion).”
Down 36-35 with 6:24 to go, the Dragons followed the timeout with a 6-0 run and led the rest of the way in a 47-43 victory in front of an excited crowd at New Palestine High School Friday.
Junior guard Blaine Nunnally scored on a drive in the lane for a 37-36 New Pal advantage with 4:41 remaining. Senior guard Damon Hockett took a defensive rebound all the way for a bucket and Nunnally had another lay-in on a very nice offensive move on a Cougar defender for a 41-36 score.
It was the boost New Pal needed, but the game was far from over.
The Dragons, who had hit all eight of their free-throw attempts in the game’s first 31 minutes, missed all three of their tries in the final minute.
With New Pal up 45-40, Nunnally missed a pair at the stripe. The Cougars followed with a conventional three-point play from junior Dylan Moles to cut it to two, 45-43.
New Pal guard Bryant Nunnally missed a front-end of a one-and-bonus free throw with 19.5 seconds to go. Greenfield-Central had a chance to force overtime, but Joey Roland’s lay-up attempt was well defended and the Dragons rebounded and scored again for the final margin.
Moles led all scorers with 15 points. Greenfield-Central frosh Braylon Mullins had 14.
Ian Stephens led three Dragon double-figure scorers with 14. Steele Brasfield had 11 and Blaine Nunnally scored 10, all in the second half.
It was the HHC opener for both teams. The Dragons improved to 3-1 overall, while the Cougars dropped to .500 at 2-2.
Greenfield-Central trailed 23-13 at halftime, before rallying in the third quarter.
Moles had seven points in the period. Roland and Mullins each had five. G-C went on a 7-2 run to end the third.
It started with a bucket from Rashawn Street, on a nice pass from Roland. In transition, Roland scored to cut the Dragons lead to 33-31. After a Blaine Nunnally hoop, Moles ended the quarter’s scoring with a 3-pointer to make it 35-34.
A pair of Mullins free throws to start fourth gave G-C a brief lead.
The rivalry between the two county foes has picked up over the past couple seasons.
The Dragons, who won sectional titles in 2019 and 2020, beat Greenfield-Central in last year’s regular season matchup before the Cougars avenged the loss in the 2021 sectional tournament.
Both schools had large and loud student sections in an entertaining night of basketball that opened with a New Pal-Greenfield-Central girls varsity matchup.
“It seems this rivalry brings the best out of both of us,” third-year Greenfield-Central coach Luke Meredith said. “It changed the trajectory of our season two years ago and last year, taking the loss at home helped us (beat them) in the sectional. This is going to help us in a long season and the dog days of January.
“It was Indiana basketball at its finest. It was phenomenal with the band and the student sections going after it. This (game) is our rivalry. This is who we want to model our program after. They were back-to-back sectional champs. We knocked them off last year (in the sectional) and this year they got us at their home.”
Stephens got the Dragons off to a good first-half start. He had 10 of his 14 points in the first quarter.
“They’re a great program. What (coach) Meredith has done with them (the last two-plus seasons) has been great,” Stephens said. “We all know each other. We all like each other. When it’s on the court it’s different. You want to win and you do everything you can to win.
“We came out and really dominated on the defensive end in the first half. The second half they started knocking down shots, scoring 21 points in the third quarter, but we had a good plan against them in the fourth.”
The Cougars had to battle back twice. They overcame the 10-point halftime deficit. In the fourth quarter, the Dragons led by as much as eight points, 45-37, with just over two minutes remaining.
Mullins hit a trey to cut it to 45-40 and the Cougars had a shot late after the missed New Pal free throws.
“I told our guys we have to use this pain to take us to a place you couldn’t have gone before. They were hurting in the locker room,” Meredith said. “You hate to see the kids hurting, but it means they care, they love each other and it means they love this team.”
“We knew we couldn’t keep them to 13 points in the second half. There was no way,” Whitaker added. “Our first half (defense) was incredible. We did a nice job of helping off guys that we could help off of and forced some tough shots.”
New Palestine got help from its bench, too. Subs scored 12 points with Eian Roudebush added eight and Hockett scoring four.
The Dragons are 2-0 against county rivals. They beat Eastern Hancock last week.
The Dragons are back in action with another conference game next Friday at New Castle. Greenfield-Central plays, at home, against Speedway tonight.
New Palestine 47, Greenfield-Central 43
Greenfield-Central;8;5;21;9;—;43
New Palestine;17;6;12;12;—;47
Greenfield-Central (2-2, 0-1): Adam Lester 1 1-3 3, Braylon Mullins 3 5-6 14, Joey Roland 3 0-2 7, Dylan Moles 6 1-1 15, Rune Carpenter-Jones 0 2-2 2, Rashawn Street 1 0-0 2, Tyler Kerkhof 0 0-0 0, Owen Anderson 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14 9-14 43.
New Palestine (3-1, 1-0): Steele Brasfield 4 2-2 11, Logan Strong 0 0-0 0, Ian Stephens 5 2-2 14, Bryant Nunnally 0 0-1 0, Blaine Nunnally 3 4-6 10, Eian Roudebush 4 0-0 8, Damon Hockett 2 0-0 4. Totals: 18 8-11 47.
3-point goals: Greenfield-Central 6 (Mullins 3, Moles 2, Roland); New Palestine 3 (Stephens 2, Brasfield)
