New Palestine’s Julius Gizzi, shown here in a game against Delta, had 33 points — his eighth 30-point game in the last nine — to help lead the Dragons to a 63-59 victory at No. 9 Richmond. It was Richmond’s first loss of the season.
Mike Brown | For the Daily Reporter
By Andrew Smith
For The Daily Reporter
RICHMOND — Coming into Tuesday night, seven unbeaten boys basketball teams remained in Indiana.
That number dropped to six by the evening’s end, as the New Palestine Dragons took control in the second half at the Tiernan Center and held off Richmond for a 63-59 victory, handing the Red Devils their first loss of the season.
Julius Gizzi continued his run of scoring, tallying 33 points for his eighth 30-point outing in his last nine games and helping the Dragons to a 10-2 record.
The Dragons got key contributions on both ends and timely baskets from a number of players in the victory.
“That’s a team win,” Dragons coach Trent Whitaker said. “Everybody that got to play did what they needed to do. (Cedric) Horton is a great player. Richmond is very well-coached. We had to play good team defense and our guys stepped up and did a nice job.”
Horton scored 18 of his 27 points in the opening half, helping stake Richmond to a 14-9 lead late in the first quarter. But Gizzi went coast-to-coast ahead of the buzzer and scored a three-point play to draw NP within three.
The Dragons took the lead in the second, behind nine points from Gizzi and a 3-pointer by Austin McMahan out of the corner. Richmond tied the game with four seconds left in the half, but Moses Haynes went coast-to-coast and drilled a triple at the horn to put the Dragons on top.
NP jumped out to a nine-point lead in the third, buoyed by 3-pointers from Haynes and Gizzi and a 10-point quarter for the Dragons’ leading scorer, but an 8-0 run by Richmond drew the Red Devils within one. There, Keagan Harrison drilled an open 3-pointer from the wing to restore a four-point edge.
Richmond kept coming, and Braiden Hogg hit a late shot to give the Red Devils a 47-46 edge. Gizzi again scored at the buzzer off a feed from Haynes to put NP up 48-47.
The Dragons’ third-quarter surge came as Haynes found the open man, whether it was Gizzi or another teammate.
“Moses does a great job of finding anyone that helps off Julius — he can slip to the basket,” Whitaker said. “With Julius, it’s not just his scoring, but he does a great job off the ball. He’s always moving. He does a great job getting behind the defense and hitting backcuts, and he and Moses have a connection I’ve not seen. They’ve played so much basketball together, Mo knows where Julius is going to be, Julius gets to his spot, and we got a lot of layups tonight from that.
Haynes hit a driving shot in the lane and Ben Slagley got a basket to give NP a 52-49 edge early in the fourth. The Dragons then switched to a zone defense to slow the Red Devils down, and it stunted the Red Devils’ offensive rhythm, as Richmond scored just two fourth-quarter field goals.
“They ran some nice sets against it and got a couple of buckets, but it basically took Horton out of the game,” Whitaker said. “We don’t play much zone, and we don’t practice it much, but they were on the fly, just flying around and making stops.”
After Richmond drew within one, Gizzi hit a three-point play — his third of the game — and then added another free throw on a subsequent trip to put NP up 59-54. From there, the Dragons’ ballhandling and foul shooting kept enough distance.
In addition to Gizzi’s 33 points, Haynes scored 12. Harrison added seven and McMahan five. The latter duo also guarded Horton for much of the game.
“That’s the nice thing about these guys. They don’t get rattled. We call timeout, they’re talking to each other. I feel they’re connected,” Whitaker said. “They just play basketball. They don’t get caught up in winning and losing. They just play. We talk about ‘do what you need to do to help the team win.’ Keagan hit a nice shot there, but defense is where he’s going to get his minutes. I thought he did a nice job, and so did Austin McMahan.”
The victory was the 126th in Whitaker’s nine-year coaching career, tying him with Brian Kehrt as the Dragons’ career coaching wins leader. Whitaker was an assistant to both Kehrt and Adam Barton, who is the only other Dragons coach to win 120 games.
“It’s about the kids. I wouldn’t have 126 wins if it weren’t for the kids, and if it weren’t for Brian Kehrt and Adam Barton,” Whitaker said. “I wouldn’t have one win if Adam didn’t make it enjoyable. High school basketball means a lot to the community. To think I’ve been at it long enough to win 126 means a lot, but one thing Adam did a nice job of was making sure the kids were enjoying themselves. I’m blessed to be around long enough to get that many wins. It takes great assistant coaches, it takes great players, it takes a great wife and a great family to let me do all of this.”
The Dragons continue a busy week with a pair of weekend home games, as they host Roncalli Friday and Franklin Saturday.
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New Palestine 63, Richmond 59
New Palestine;12;18;18;15;—;63
Richmond;14;13;20;12;—;59
New Palestine (10-2): Julius Gizzi 10 11-17 33, Moses Haynes 4 2-4 13, Keagan Harrison 3 0-0 7, Austin McMahan 2 0-0 5, Ben Slagley 1 1-3 3, Brady Armstrong 1 0-0 2, Evan Darrah 0 0-0 0, Alex Guhl 0 0-0 0. Totals 21 14-24 63.
Richmond (16-1): Cedric Horton 11 5-8 27, Mason Carpenter 4 5-6 13, Braiden Hogg 3 2-2 8, Julien Smith 2 0-0 6, De’Arieun Hicks 1 1-2 3, Zion Deloney 1 0-0 2, Gavin Haynes 0 0-0 0, Deante Smith 0 0-0 0. Totals 22 13-18 59.
3-point goals: New Palestine 7 (Haynes 3, Gizzi 2, McMahan, Harrison), Richmond 2 (J.Smith 2).
