New Palestine High School

The New Palestine boys basketball team used an efficient second half and a strong shooting performance from long range Friday to beat host Delta 62-48. The Dragons are now 10-0 on the season and alone atop the Hoosier Heritage Conference with a 3-0 league mark. Delta moves to 8-4 and 1-2. Sophomore Julius Gizzi scored a career-high 19 points, getting the Dragons going offensively with a 3-pointer in the opening quarter after they were scoreless for the game's first four minutes. The Dragons' strong defense allowed them to take a 7-5 lead at the quarter break. Gizzi then added two 3-pointers in the second quarter to key an 8-0 run that put NP up 15-9, a lead the Dragons would never relinquish. Gizzi scored 13 first-half points. After the back-to-back threes, Blaine Nunnally drew the defense to him and fed Ben Slagley underneath for four points, while Bryant Nunnally hit a reverse layup, helping the Dragons take a 23-20 lead into halftime. While NP never gave up the lead - in fact, Delta never had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead from the midpoint of the second quarter on – the two teams were in a tussle. Each scored on its last five first-half possessions and their first four second-half possessions, as the Dragons’ lead oscillated between two and six for much of the second and third quarters before NP pushed it to seven headed to the fourth. Nunnally hit an early triple, Eian Roudebush scored five quick points and Slagley six to push the lead to 41-34 going into the final frame. Gizzi hit his fourth 3-pointer of the game on the first possession of the fourth quarter to give NP a double-digit lead. After a steal by Slagley led to an Ian Stephens dunk, the lead was quickly 46-34 seconds into the fourth. Gizzi and Stephens each hit free throws, eventually forcing Delta out of its zone. Nunnally scored six points in the final frame and Stephens seven - including three dunks - as the Dragons kept the lead above nine the rest of the way. Slagley, another sophomore, also scored 14 points, bouncing back from a slow start to score six first-half points and add six more in the third, also playing solid interior defense and tallying his third straight double-double with a big night on the glass. Stephens and Blaine Nunnally each finished with 11 points after combining for two - a pair of Nunnally free throws - in the first half. Blaine Nunnally now has 982 career points, moving into 10th on the NPHS career scoring list . Bryant Nunnally played strong defense on Delta’s leading scorer Jayden Furney, helping lock him down - he scored two fourth-quarter points and finished with 15 - and in turn, locking down the Eagles. In addition to Furney’s 15, D’Amare Hood scored 13 for Delta. Jackson Wors scored nine - four below his average - thanks to strong defense from Slagley and Stephens. The Dragons’ victory snaps a string of six consecutive wins by the home team in the series and was their first at Delta since 2014. The Dragons are back in action at 3:30 p.m. Saturday against Southport.