New Palestine High School

The New Palestine boys basketball team concludes the regular season tonight at Greenwood. #12 New Palestine Dragons (18-5) at Greenwood Woodmen (8-13) Time: 6 p.m. JV/7:30 p.m. V Location: Greenwood HS Tickets: $7, https://public.eventlink.com/tickets?t=69920 Audio: NewPalRadio.com SETTING THE SCENE The Dragons conclude the regular season with their traditional finale against Greenwood. This is the 50th meeting between the two schools - and the 40th consecutive year they have played. The current series began in 1984-85, and is tied with Greenfield-Central for the Dragons’ second-longest active series opponent. Mt. Vernon (61 seasons) is the longest. NP leads the series 29-20 and has won two straight, nine of the last 10 and 16 of the last 18. NP won 61-31 last season. This is the Dragons’ fourth game against a Mid-State Conference school since mid-January. The Dragons are 2-1 against the league. The Dragons are ranked in the IBCA poll for the fourth straight week, moving up two spots to No. 12 after extending their winning streak to seven games. DRAGONS NOTES The Dragons struggled on Tuesday at Mt. Vernon. Junior Julius Gizzi tallied a double-double with 27 points and 13 rebounds. It was his third consecutive double-double and the fifth of both his season and career. He became the first Dragon to tally three straight double-doubles since Ben Slagley did so in the 2022-23 season. Gizzi, the state’s leading scorer, now has 699 points this season, extending his school record. He has 938 career points, moving past Royce McDougall into 12th place on the NPHS all-time list. He needs 36 points to catch Matthew True for 11th. Guard Moses Haynes has 155 assists this season, a school record. He is currently sixth on the NPHS career assists list with 229. Last Saturday against Whiteland, Gizzi set an NPHS gymnasium record Saturday, scoring 44 points on 19-of-36 shooting in the Dragons’ 76-75 victory over Whiteland. Gizzi hit 5-of-5 from the free throw line and hit one 3-pointer. It was tied for the second-highest single-game total in program history. Ryan Curry’s 46-point game against Shelbyville in 2015 remains the record. Gizzi is the only player in NPHS history with two career 40-point games. He also had 43 against Franklin Central this season. The Dragons’ 18 wins are tied for ninth-most in school history. If they win one more, the 19 victories would tie for the third-most wins. Gizzi is the state’s leading scorer at 30.4 ppg. Haynes is fourth in assists at 7.0 per game. Each leads the HHC in their respective category. Gizzi (8.3) and Slagley (7.2) are first and second in the HHC in rebounding. Haynes is also fifth in the HHC in steals (2.0). SCOUTING THE WOODMEN Greenwood has won three straight games over Plainfield, Mooresville and Indian Creek, the latter a 51-50 victory Tuesday.That followed a 72-64 victory over Mooresville and a 65-58 win over Plainfield Senior Jake Mosemann leads the Woodmen, averaging 15.7 points per game. Junior Isaac O’Neal adds 11.2 ppg, while senior Jude Thompson adds 4.4 rebounds per contest. Greenwood is led by first-year coach Keith Witty, who joins the Woodmen after six years at Edinburgh, where he led the Lancers to two sectional championships. LOOKING AHEAD The Dragons open sectional play at Greenfield-Central next Tuesday against Mt. Vernon. FOLLOW US Follow the Dragons on Facebook (@newpalestinedragons), Twitter (@NPHSDragons), Instagram (@newpalestinedragons) and online (NewPalestineAthletics.com). All Dragons boys basketball games, home and away, are broadcast at NewPalRadio.com. All home games are also provided via pay-per-view at IHSAAtv.org.