New Palestine High School

The New Palestine boys basketball team had a flair for the dramatic this weekend. Saturday night, Moses Haynes hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer, giving the Dragons a 66-64 victory at Franklin. NP trailed by a point with 10 seconds left when Ben Slagley brought the ball up. While Julius Gizzi - who had scored 14 points in the fourth quarter - drew most of the Grizzly Cubs' attention, Haynes popped open on the right wing and drained the triple. Things looked bleak for the Dragons when Franklin's Jayce Nielsen hit a 3-pointer out of the corner inside of three minutes to play, giving the Grizzly Cubs a 62-53 lead. But the Dragons didn't go away. Gizzi answered with a three-point play to cut the deficit to six. The Dragons got a stop and Gizzi hit two free throws to cut the lead to four. A Franklin turnover gave NP a chance to cut the lead further, and Haynes answered with a 3-pointer out of the corner to cut the lead to 62-61 with a minute to go. Two missed free throws gave the Dragons a chance. Gizzi drove down the lane, drew a foul and hit both free throws to put NP up 63-62 with 19 seconds left. Franklin found center Kolt Nelson inside. He was fouled with 10 seconds left and hit both shots, giving the Dragons one last chance. With the Dragons trailing 52-44 going into the final frame, Gizzi scored six straight points to cut the lead to 52-50, before Nielsen hit a shot and Omari Thomas a 3-pointer to push the Grizzly Cubs' edge to 57-50, and eventually to 62-53 before the late heroics. Gizzi scored 14 of his game-high 34 points in the fourth. He started hot, hitting an array of contested jumpers and inside shots to score 11 first-quarter points, giving NP an 18-13 lead after one. Franklin came roaring back with a 20-point second quarter to take a halftime lead, despite Gizzi scoring seven. Franklin rallied, led by Nelson, who hit an early 3-pointer and scored seven second-quarter points, then scored six points in a three-possession 8-0 run - including a volleyball-line 3-pointer - that put Franklin up 43-36 early in the third. Nelson finished with 25 points. Haynes finished with 13 points, while Slagley scored eight of his 10 points in the third quarter. Friday against Roncalli, the Dragons trailed by six midway through the fourth, and were on defense with a four-point deficit in the final two minutes, and rallied back to win by two. They finished Friday's game on a 6-0 run, and Saturday's on a 13-2 run, winning both games by two. In addition to the three double-figure scorers, Will Davison tallied five second-quarter points. Keagan Harrison and Austin McMahan scored two each. The Dragons won the JV game 68-43 and also won the freshman game. The sixth-ranked Dragons are now 13-2 on the season, after capping a stretch where they played nine consecutive games away from home, winning eight. They next play Wednesday at home against Lawrence North.