New Palestine High School

The Dragons boys basketball team closes the regular season with a Thursday game at Warren Central. New Palestine Dragons (20-3) at Warren Central Warriors (13-7) Time: 6 p.m. JV/7:30 p.m. V Site: Warren Central High School Tickets: ONLINE ONLY $8.85 https://public.eventlink.com/tickets?t=117362 Audio: NewPalRadio.com SETTING THE SCENE The Dragons close the regular season with a trip to Warren Central to face the Warriors. Despite being 10 miles apart, the two schools have played only once since 2008, which ended a 10-year series. They also played briefly from 1981-83 and prior to 1936. The Dragons are 3-21 all-time against the Warriors, with the last win being a double-overtime victory Feb. 7, 2002. The Dragons also defeated WC in the 1929 and 1931 Greenfield sectional tournaments. This is the Dragons’ second game against a MIC team. They defeated Lawrence North 63-56 Jan. 29. The Dragons have clinched their third 20-win season in a row and fourth all-time. This is the final tune-up before the sectional. NP opens Tuesday at Shelbyville against the Rushville Lions. DRAGONS NOTES For the third time this season, the Dragons are looking to bounce back from a loss as they face Warren Central. This is the Dragons’ fifth consecutive game against a team ranked in the Jeff Sagarin Top 64. While the Dragons compete in Class 3A, the majority of their schedule has been against 4A schools. This is NP’s 13th game against Class 4A - the Dragons are 10-2 in such games. Last week, the Dragons celebrated Senior Night and saw a furious fourth-quarter comeback fall short. They cut what had been a 21-point deficit to four with three minutes to go. Julius Gizzi led the way with 30 points, the 22nd 30-point game of his career. He also had five rebounds. Moses Haynes added 11 points and four assists, while Ben Slagley and Austin McMahan had six rebounds each. Slagley also had seven points, three assists, two steals and two blocked shots. Gizzi became the Dragons’ career scoring leader on Valentine’s Day against Shelbyville, and now has 1,652 career points. He and his older sister Isabella, a 2023 NPHS graduate, are one of seven pairs of siblings to share their schools’ boys and girls scoring records. Isabella scored 1,676 in her career. Haynes extended his school career assists record to 430 and steals record to 133 last week. He needs seven assists to tie his own single-season mark of 182, set last year. The Dragons have posted 10 double-doubles this season. Haynes, Gizzi and Slagley have three each - one of Slagley’s is a triple-double and another is a rebounds/assists double-double. Both of Haynes’ are points/assists double-doubles. McMahan has one. At 26.2 ppg entering, Gizzi is fourth in the state in scoring and second in the HHC. At 7.6 apg, Haynes is fifth in the state and first in the HHC in assists. Slagley leads the HHC in blocked shots (1.3 bpg). Slagley has 99 career blocks and is one away from becoming the second Dragon to tally 100 in his career. SCOUTING THE WARRIORS WC entered the week on a six-game winning streak dating to Jan. 25, including a 42-41 victory over Carmel last Friday, which was snapped Tuesday with a 63-56 loss to Pike. Jevon Guess (12 ppg) and Ezekiel Kirby (9 ppg) lead the Warriors. LOOKING AHEAD The Dragons open the Shelbyville sectional at 6 p.m. Tuesday against Rushville. The winner will face Beech Grove at 6 p.m. Friday. FOLLOW THE DRAGONS All Dragons games, home and away, are broadcast at NewPalRadio.com. The Dragons are also on Facebook and Instagram (@newpalestinedragons) and X (@NPHSDragons), and can be found online at NewPalestineAthletics.com. Photo: Aaron Smith