New Palestine High School

Ben Slagley hit two free throws with 4.3 seconds left, then stole an inbounds pass at the buzzer to help the New Palestine boys basketball team seal a 58-56 victory over Mt. Vernon in Tuesday's opening round of the Class 4A Greenfield-Central sectional. The No. 15 Dragons (20-5) advance to face Pendleton Heights in Friday's 6 p.m. semifinal at Greenfield-Central. Slagley's two free throws came in a wild back-and-forth conclusion to the game. With four minutes to go, the Dragons trailed 49-46, but scored six straight points on a free throw by Austin McMahan and a baseline jumper by Julius Gizzi to tie the game. The Dragons forced three more stops in a row. Slagley broke the tie by splitting two free throws. After another stop, Gizzi was fouled and hit both shots to put NP up 52-49. Keagan Harrison stole an interior pass to give the Dragons possession with a three-point lead and 1:25 remaining. The Dragons were fouled but missed both free throws. MV hit a shot to cut the lead to one. Gizzi was fouled again and split two free throws to extend the lead to 53-51. On the other end, the Marauders' Luke Ertel hit a step-back 3-pointer with 21 seconds left to give MV the lead, but it was short-lived. Moses Haynes threw a long inbounds pass to Slagley, who found Gizzi cutting to the hoop for a basket and a foul. He hit the free throw with 19.3 seconds left to give the Dragons a 56-54 lead. On the other end, MV's R'Mani Wells was open from 18 and knocked down a jumper to tie the game with 7.9 seconds left. After a timeout, the Dragons set up a play for Gizzi to bring the ball upcourt. But as he was setting a screen at midcourt, Slagley was plowed over and fouled. He calmly hit both free throws to break the tie. After a foul on the Dragons with 1.7 seconds left, the Marauders tried to throw the ball in long, but Slagley intercepted it at the buzzer to seal the victory. Playing his first game after missing three contests due to an injury, Slagley scored seven of his nine points in the second half, and was also critical in the Dragons' interior defense and ballhandling. Gizzi led the way with 21 points, scoring 10 in the final quarter. The contest was back-and-forth early, featuring multiple first-quarter lead changes. The Dragons' depth shone as five different players scored in the opening frame. Gizzi tallied five points, while Evan Darrah hit a late 3-pointer and Austin McMahan, Brady Armstrong and Alex Guhl all hit shots to give the Dragons a 14-11 lead after one. In the second, the Dragons pushed the lead to 29-20, with Darrah banking in an early 3-pointer and Haynes hitting two triples in the frame. Julien Smith kept MV in contact, scoring all 14 of the Marauders' points in the quarter. He hit four straight 3-pointers, including two in a spurt to close the quarter and draw the Marauders within 31-26 at the break. Smith had 18 of the Marauders' points at halftime, while all eight Dragons who had played scored. MV then used an early third-quarter run, fueled by a three-point play from Smith, to take its first lead at 36-35. Brady Fitzgerald hit the first of his two 3-pointers to extend the edge. Slagley scored four points in the quarter for the Dragons, but a late turnover and a basket by Smith at the buzzer gave the Marauders a 42-39 edge going into the fourth, setting the stage for the late-game heroics. In addition to the top three scorers, Darrah added six point, McMahan five and Harrison four. Armstrong and Guhl scored two each. Smith led MV with 25 points, but was held to seven in the second half. He was the Marauders' lone double-figure scorer, as Tyler Davis tallied eight and Ertel seven. The Dragons' 20-win season is the third in school history and second consecutive. In addition, Gizzi's 21 points give him 976 for his career, moving him past Matthew True into 11th place on the NPHS career scoring list. He needs 26 points to reach 1,000 and to catch Ray Hobbs for 10th place. Gizzi extended his single-season school scoring record to 737 points. In addition, the Dragons beat MV for the seventh time in the last 11 meetings, including the fourth time in their last five sectional meetings. NP is 10-8 all-time in sectional meetings against MV. Sectional play continues Wednesday as Greenfield-Central meets Anderson, followed by Richmond against Muncie Central.