New Palestine High School

The New Palestine boys basketball team rallied from a five-point deficit in the closing minutes Friday to beat Yorktown 60-53 and improve to 15-0 on the season. The Dragons are also 5-0 in the Hoosier Heritage Conference and can clinch at least a share of the league title Feb. 11 against Shelbyville. The Dragons finished the game on a 12-0 run over the final three minutes. Trailing 53-48, Moses Haynes drilled a 3-pointer from the right wing to cut the deficit to two. After Ian Stephens rebounded a Yorktown miss, the Dragons pushed the ball into the frontcourt, where Blaine Nunnally drove, hit a shot and drew a foul. He completed the three-point play to put the Dragons up 54-53. Another defensive stop led to two free throws by Nunnally in the final 90 seconds. From there, the Dragons locked in on Yorktown's next possession as the Tigers took nearly a minute off the clock looking for a shot. They missed with less than 30 seconds left. Nunnally hit two free throws, and after another defensive stop, hit two more to ice the game. Nunnally finished with 20 points, including hitting 8-of-8 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter. Stephens led alol scorers with 22 points. The Dragons opened up a 22-16 lead after a quarter, with Stephens scoring 11 points in a high-scoring frame. He added seven more in the second quarter, after which the Dragons took a 33-28 lead. A.J. Dunn scored 11 points as Yorktown outscored the Dragons 16-9 in the third quarter to take a 44-42 lead, then scored the first four points of the fourth to push its edge to six. In addition to the two leading scorers, Haynes and Ben Slagley scored six points each. Julius Gizzi added four and Bryant Nunnally two. The eighth-ranked Dragons next play Monday at home against Lawrence North, which is 12-3 and ranked No. 16 in the IBCA poll.