Class 3A, No. 5 New Palestine's balance too much for Shelbyville

Class 3A, No. 5 New Palestine had no intention of letting Shelbyville get comfortable from beyond the 3-point arc.

A physical, aggressive defense closed quickly on the Golden Bears’ shooters and forced the offense to match the Dragons’ interior scoring ability.

And New Palestine’s starting five were stellar in a 63-42 victory at William L. Garrett Gymnasium. Julius Gizzi scored a game-high 20 points while Ben Slagley (13 points), Austin McMahan (11) and Evan Darrah (10) each reached double digits to help the Dragons (20-2, 5-1 Hoosier Heritage Conference) secure their third-consecutive 20-win season.

“You have to be tough and physical with this team or they will bury you and put you away, and that’s exactly what they did in the second half,” said Shelbyville head coach John Hartnett.

Gizzi entered the game needing 11 points to become New Palestine’s career-scoring leader – and he took care of that in the first half with 13 points. The Indiana Wesleyan recruit now has 1,622 career points – nine more than the previous record holder Maximus Gizzi, his older brother, set in 2020. Maximus Gizzi is currently a graduate student averaging 10.7 ppg for 20-5 Huntington University.

Moses Haynes, cousin to the Gizzi brothers, notched 11 assists against the Golden Bears to also set a New Palestine program record for career assists with 424, eclipsing the old record held by Blaine Nunnally.

The Golden Bears (15-5, 3-3 HHC) won the first quarter but their starting low post players each had two fouls. Mar Nicholson and Cole Schene combined for nine points in the opening eight minutes to help build a 13-8 lead. Neither took a shot in the second quarter in limited playing time to avoid getting a third foul.

“We knew we would be tough to stop inside if we get position and get the ball to Mar and Cole,” said Hartnett. “The way we’ve played all year is look to get the ball in the post initially and if (the opposition) doesn’t send two (defenders) or double Mar or Cole, they are good enough to go 1-on-1. That’s the biggest way we get our shooters open if teams double Mar and Cole down low.

“Second quarter hurt us bad just having our ‘bigs’ presence out. Mar was in foul trouble. Cole was in foul trouble. And they went on that run in the second quarter and kind of put us away right at the start of the third quarter.”

McMahan beat the Golden Bears up the floor in the second quarter where he scored eight of his 11 points. Gizzi scored seven in what became a 20-point quarter that netted a 28-22 halftime lead.

The Dragons cooled off in the third quarter, hitting just 5 of 15 shot attempts but the Golden Bears only scored seven points and trailed 41-29 going to the final quarter.

Darrah scored seven points in the fourth and Haynes set the assist record with five in the quarter that put New Palestine in position to finish runner-up in the HHC standings behind Greenfield-Central (17-3, 7-0 HHC).

Haynes finished with four points but had 11 assists, five rebounds and five steals.

New Palestine hosts Mt. Vernon (13-4, 4-1 HHC) on Feb. 21 to determine who will finish second in the conference standings.

Shelbyville shot 55% from the field inside the arc Friday but made just 2 of 14 3s when it normally shoots 41% from outside the arc.

“I thought (New Palestine) did an excellent job taking away our shooters and our actions we run out of our sets,” said Hartnett. “I thought after the first quarter, we kind of went away from driving and kicking. We didn’t look to attack to get to the paint and draw the defense to kick (to a shooter).”

Nicholson led the Golden Bears with 14 points and three rebounds. Damon Badgley finished with 11 points and four assists.

New Palestine won the junior varsity game, 50-40. Sam Hirschy led the Dragons with 18 points.

Gavin Hall, Nick Fischer and Eli Davis each scored eight points for the Golden Bears (5-11).

Hartnett knows there is a potential rematch with New Palestine next month in Class 3A, Sectional 28, which will be played in Shelbyville.

“There is a lot to look at in this game to see what we could do differently if we play them again,” he said.

The Golden Bears are in action tonight at home against Beech Grove (7-12) – another potential sectional opponent and future conference foe in the Hoosier Legends Conference.

“I think it’s a chance for us to get our edge back,” said Hartnett. “It won’t be an easy game. Beech Grove has improved with every single game they’ve played this year, and they are very athletic.”

GIANT fm will broadcast the game from Garrett Gymnasium. Pre-game starts at approximately 7:10 p.m.

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