New Palestine High School

The New Palestine boys basketball team took command in the second quarter and pulled away to a 66-51 victory over Class 3A No. 3 Guerin Catholic Tuesday night at the Dragons' Den. The No. 5 Dragons improved to 19-2 with the victory, while Guerin fell to 17-4. Julius Gizzi led the way with 26 points, giving him 1,602 for his career. He is 10 points away from becoming the school's career scoring leader. Moses Haynes added 10 points. The Dragons struggled with Guerin's physical man-to-man defense early, committing seven first-quarter turnovers and falling behind 16-8 as the Golden Eagles hit a pair of first-quarter 3-pointers. In the second, the Dragons quickly took command, scoring the first five points on a 3-pointer from Will Davison and a basket by Keagan Harrison. After a Guerin hoop, a feed inside to Ben Slagley cut the deficit to 18-15. The Dragons continued to push. Davison hit another triple, and Haynes hit a jumper and a 3-pointer to give the Dragons a 23-21 lead. Gizzi then scored seven points on three consecutive shots and Austin McMahan a three-point play to help push the lead to eight at 33-25 at the break. The Dragons then opened the third quarter with a 7-0 run on baskets by Evan Darrah and Gizzi and a 3-pointer by Haynes to go up 40-25. They pushed the lead as high as 16, as Gizzi scored six points in the quarter. Guerin battled back, using an 8-0 run in three possessions to cut the lead to 46-38, and whittled it to 48-41 at the horn after Bryson Cardinal's third 3-pointer of the quarter. Guerin had the opening possession of the fourth, but the Dragons forced a stop and got a quick basket from Gizzi to go up 50-41. Cardinal hit a free throw to cut the lead to eight with six minutes to go. The Dragons answered with baskets by Gizzi and McMahan to push the lead to 54-42 before Guerin's Ryne Paris hit a runner to cut the lead to 10 with three and a half minutes left. The Dragons then spread the floor, killed nearly a minute of clock and got a basket from Gizzi to push the lead to 12 again before the Golden Eagles quickly answered. Cardinal hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 10, but a putback by McMahan, a layup by Davison and 6-of-8 free throw shooting down the stretch - including 5-of-6 from Gizzi - put the game away. The Dragons held Guerin to 8-of-25 shooting in the second half, while they hit 50% (10-of-20) in the second ahlf and 49% (24-49) for the game. NP outrebounded Guerin 31-22. In addition to his 26 points, Gizzi also had six rebounds and three steals. Haynes had four steals and four rebounds, while McMahan tallied nine points and eight boards. Davison scored eight. Harrison tallied six points. Slagley had five and Darrah two. Cardinal led Guerin with 21 points. The Dragons also won the JV game 69-54. The Dragons are next in action Friday at Shelbyville as they return to conference play.