New Palestine High School

The New Palestine girls basketball team used the longball to answer Greenfield-Central's runs, then locked the Cougars down on the defensive end down the stretch to beat G-C 42-35 in Wednesday's sectional opener. The Dragons (13-10) advance to meet either Pendleton Heights or Muncie Central in Friday's 7:30 p.m. semifinal at Pendleton Heights. Mt. Vernon will face Richmond in the first semifinal. The Dragons led by five at the end of the first quarter and four late in the first half, but G-C's Madison Sonsini hit a half-court shot to tie the game at 20-20 at the break. G-C then scored on its first two possessions of the third quarter to go up 24-20, but the Dragons answered as Kendra Moore drilled a 3-pointer to cut the lead. G-C scored on its next possession, but Vivian Miller drained a triple to tie the game at 26-26. Allie Blum then hit a baseline jumper to give the Dragons the lead, and after a stop, Moore hit her second 3-pointer of the quarter to put NP up 31-26. The Dragons switched to a 3-2 zone defense that slowed the Cougars, but their rebounding held G-C to one shot. NP outrebounded G-C 15-8 in the second half. G-C was held without a point until the closing minutes of the quarter, but Blum answered each basket with one of her own to push the advantage to 35-30 going into the fourth. In the fourth, the Dragons held the ball for a minute and a half, patiently probing G-C's zone defense. They were unable to score on the possession, but quickly forced a miss and grabbed the rebound. They again took two minutes off the clock before forcing G-C to come out of its zone defense. Moore broke free underneath for a layup midway through the quarter to push the lead to 37-30. After another stop, the Dragons ran more clock before Blum was fouled in the final three minutes. She hit two foul shots to extend the edge to 39-30. G-C hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to six, and after a free throw by Blum, cut it to five on a basket by Chaney Brown, but the Dragons continued to force stops on defense. They hit 5-of-8 from the line in the fourth quarter to put the game away. In the game's last 14 and a half minutes, NP allowed just nine points - coming on two consecutive possessions in each the late third and fourth quarters - while scoring 19 in that same time frame. The Dragons were efficient offensively, hitting 7-of-12 from the floor in the second half - including 3-of-5 from deep - while holding G-C to 6-of-22. The opening half was one of runs. Brown scored the game's first five points, but the Dragons responded with a drive by Blum, two baskets inside by Sadey Hughbanks and two 3-pointers from Miller to go up 12-7 after a quarter. G-C opened the second quarter with six straight points to take the lead, but the Dragons answered with a 6-1 run on two free throws by Kylee Beranek and baskets from Moore and Blum to go up 18-14. G-C responded by getting the ball inside to Sonsini, its 6-0 post, and scored on back-to-back possessions to cut the Dragons' lead to 20-17, and then Sonsini hit a running half-court shot at the buzzer to tie the game. Three Dragons scored in double figures, as Blum scored 13 points. Moore and Miller tallied 10 each. Hughbanks scored six and Beranek three. Brown led G-C with 17 points, while Sonsini scored nine - but only two came after halftime. The Dragons outrebounded the taller Cougars 33-22, with Blum grabbing eight boards and Hughbanks six. Miller and Hughbanks each tallied three assists. The victory avenged an overtime loss in the regular season for the Dragons, and the HHC champion Dragons have now defeated all seven conference teams in their 50th anniversary season.