New Palestine High School

The New Palestine basketball team hosts its homecoming game Friday before traveling to Indian Creek for a Saturday matinee. FRIDAY: Yorktown Tigers (5-10, 0-4 HHC) at (12/3A 5) New Palestine Dragons (14-2, 3-1 HHC) Time: 6 p.m. F/JV, 7:30 p.m. V Site: New Palestine HS Tickets: $6/cash at gate or online https://public.eventlink.com/tickets?t=112445 Audio broadcast: NewPalRadio.com Video broadcast: IHSAAtv.org/NewPalestine ($) SATURDAY: (12/3A 5) New Palestine Dragons (14-2) at Indian Creek Braves (8-7) Time: 2 p.m. JV, 3:30 p.m. V Site: Indian Creek HS Tickets: $6/cash https://public.eventlink.com/tickets?t=109686 Audio broadcast: NewPalRadio.com SETTING THE SCENE The Dragons play their second game in three days with a Friday-night conference tilt against Yorktown. Yorktown leads the series - which has been played annually since Yorktown joined the HHC in 1999 - 14-12, but NP has won eight of the last nine meetings. The Dragons won 66-58 last year, behind 31 points from Julius Gizzi and 14 from Austin McMahan. The Dragons are currently in a second-place tie in the HHC. They will play conference games three of the next four Fridays. This is one of three HHC games being played tonight. Saturday, the Dragons and Braves meet for the first time since 1980. As potential sectional opponents, they could meet again this season. Indian Creek leads the all-time series 9-4, as it was played annually from 1967-80, IC’s first 13 years as a school. DRAGONS NOTES The Dragons are 6-0 in 2025 and have won seven straight after posting one of their biggest regular-season victories in school history Wednesday, beating No. 5 Lawrence North 63-56. The Dragons led for much of the contest, building the advantage as high as 12 in the fourth quarter. Julius Gizzi scored 17 of his game-high 27 points in the second half. Moses Haynes and Ben Slagley scored 10 points each. Last weekend, the Dragons posted two come-from-behind road victories. They trailed Roncalli by four with less than two minutes left when Gizzi scored the game’s last six points. The next night, NP trailed by nine with three minutes left, but finished on a 13-2 run that was capped with Haynes’ buzzer-beating 3-pointer. Gizzi is the Dragons’ second all-time leading scorer, but in the last three wins, he has tallied 28, 34 and 27 points to lead the Dragons. Gizzi has scored 20+ points in 14 of the Dragons’ 16 games this season and 30+ three times, with a season high of 35 against Silver Creek. He now has 1,462 career points and needs 150 to catch his older brother Maximus, the Dragons’ career scoring leader. He is second in the HHC and fifth in the state in scoring at 25.8 ppg. Slagley moved into fifth place on the NPHS career rebounding list Wednesday. He now has 532, tying Dawson Eastes. He is also eighth on the career assists list (218) and second in blocks (90). Haynes is seventh in the state and leads the HHC in assists (6.9 apg), while Slagley is third (4.5 apg). Slagley leads the HHC in blocks (1.3 bpg) and is third in rebounds (6.9 rpg). SCOUTING THE TIGERS Yorktown has a balanced team that has four players averaging between 8.2 and 8.5 ppg - sophomore Mason Trammell (8.5), senior Ephraim Daugherty (8.3), junior Jabin Barnes (8.2) and senior Austin Kates (8.2). They have dropped three straight. SCOUTING THE BRAVES Indian Creek improved to 8-7 with a 76-44 victory over Brown County. The Braves are second behind Northview in the Western Indiana Conference. Landon Sichting leads the Braves, tallying 19.0 ppg and 7.9 rpg. Fellow senior Adam Crouch adds 14.9 ppg and 3.6 apg. The Braves have won two straight games after dropping two overrtime heartberkaers to Greenwood and Northview to begin January.