New Palestine High School

The New Palestine boys basketball team returns to Hoosier Heritage Conference play with a rare Thursday game at Pendleton Heights. Due to water damage at PHHS, the game will be played at Pendleton Heights Middle School, with the date change due to the splitting of a scheduled boys/girls doubleheader into separate JV/varsity games on consecutive nights. Thursday New Palestine Dragons (11-0, 3-0 HHC) at Pendleton Heights Arabians (4-8, 0-1 HHC) Time: 6 p.m. JV/F, 7:30 p.m. V Site: Pendleton Heights Middle School (directions: https://goo.gl/maps/MP2DPfJnyBN2f4QB9) Tickets: $5, purchase online at spicket.events/arabians. Due to limited capacity, Pendleton Heights asks fans to purchase advance tickets online. Tickets will be available at the gate for $6 if available. Enter door 4N or 10E. More info: https://gophhsathletics.com/2023/01/10/updated-schedule-and-ticket-info/ Audio broadcast: NewPalRadio.com SETTING THE SCENE The Dragons continue HHC play with a rare Thursday game and a venue change. Due to water damage at the PHHS gymnasium, the planned boys/girls doubleheader was scrapped and replaced with traditional JV/varsity games Thursday and Friday. . This is the 38th meeting between the Dragons and Arabians. PH leads the all-time series 20-17, but NP has won five straight dating back to the 2018 sectional. The Dragons rallied from an early double-digit deficit to win 61-53 last season. Blaine Nunnally tallied 15 points and Ben Slagley 12 in that contest. The Dragons are ranked No. 11 in the IBCA Top 20 poll, moving up five spots from their debut at No. 16 last week. They are also ranked third in the MaxPreps computer rankings and 13th in the Sagarin rankings and receiving votes in the AP poll. DRAGONS NOTES At 11-0, the Dragons are tied for the best start in the program’s 114-year history, equaling the starts from 1958-59 and 1978-79. Senior Blaine Nunnally became the 10th Dragon to reach the 1,000-point mark in Saturday’s 73-68 victory over Southport, tallying 22 points. Nunnally now has 1,004 career points and ranks ninth on the career scoring list. He needs 21 points to catch T.J. Ott for eighth and 23 points to catch Michael Morris in seventh. Nunnally has tallied 20-plus points in three of his last four games. He had 23 against Gary 21st Century and 25 against Lebanon Dec. 29 to earn MVP honors at the Lebanon Holiday Classic. Saturday, he scored 13 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter. He hit 11-of-11 from the free throw line and also dished five assists. In Friday’s win over Delta, he had 11 points and eight assists. The frontcourt duo of sophomore Ben Slagley and senior Ian Stephens have been piling up double-doubles of late. Slagley tallied three straight, with 22 points and 12 rebounds against Gary 21st Century, 12 points and 10 boards against Lebanon and 14 points and 11 rebounds against Delta. Stephens had 20 points and 11 boards Dec. 28 against Metropolitan, 16 points and 20 boards against Gary 21st Century and 11 points and 11 rebounds against Delta. Sophomore Julius Gizzi has been instant offense off the bench and tallied his two biggest games last weekend. He hit four 3-pointers and scored a career-high 19 points in Friday’s victory over Delta, then followed it up with a 17-point performance Saturday against Southport. He was 13-21 from the floor and 7-12 from deep on the weekend Senior Bryant Nunnally is normally the Dragons’ defensive stopper, but he contributed in a big way offensively Saturday against Southport, hitting three 3-pointers and scoring a career-high 11 points. He was one of four Dragons in double-figures, joining his brother Blaine (22 points), Stephens (15 points) and Gizzi (17 points) Stephens has been dishing dimes aplenty in the last week. He had a career-high five assists against Delta and did that one better with six against Southport. As a team, the Dragons had 20 assists on 23 made baskets against Delta. Nunnally ranks second in the HHC in scoring at 17.6 ppg. Stephens is fifth (16.7 ppg). Stephens leads the conference in rebounding at 9.1 rpg, with Slagley third (7.2 rpg). Nunnally leads the league in assists (5.0), with Moses Haynes fifth (2.7). SCOUTING THE ARABIANS PH is 4-8 after finishing fifth at the Madison County Tournament last week, following up a 79-72 OT loss to Anderson with wins over Alexandria (63-39) and Elwood (65-23). PH has won three of its last five, with the two losses coming in OT. Sophomore Evan Mozingo (12.6 ppg, 4.4 rpg) and junior Jace Gustin (12.1 ppg, 7.8 rpg) lead the Arabians in scoring and rebounding. Junior Aaron Cookston adds 8.8 ppg. After Thursday’s tilt, PH plays its second conference game of the week Saturday at home against Shelbyville.