PENDLETON — A 13-2 third-quarter run ended a back-and-forth battle — and the season for one team — in Wednesday’s battle between two Hancock County rivals.
New Palestine turned a 24-20 early third-quarter deficit into a seven-point lead, 33-26, and went on to defeat Greenfield-Central 42-35 in a quarterfinal game of the Pendleton Heights Sectional.
The Dragons hit three of their five 3-point field goals during that game-deciding stretch and earned a spot in one of Friday’s semifinal games against host Pendleton Heights, a 56-20 winner over Muncie Central.
New Palestine improved to 13-10.
Greenfield-Central, a team without a senior in its starting lineup, finished the year 17-7, the most wins since a 17-win season in 2016-17.
In a regular-season game on Dec. 8, at New Palestine, Greenfield-Central won 60-52 in overtime.
“Greenfield is a heckuva basketball team,” New Palestine first-year head coach Craig Moore said. “We’ve built a lot of confidence since that game and have become a better team.
“We were able to contain their shooters tonight and I think that was huge. They weren’t hitting from the outside and that’s a big part of what they do.”
Greenfield-Central was just 2 of 22 from beyond the arc. They came into the game averaging 5.3 makes per game and 34 percent shooters from downtown.
“We’ve played some really good basketball and hit a lot of shots this year,” Greenfield-Central coach Bradley Key said. “That was the hard part about tonight.”
The Dragons, only 25 percent shooters from deep on the year, hit 5 of 12 (41.7 percent), including 3 of 5 (60 percent) in the second half.
One of the G-C treys was Madison Sonsini’s desperation 30-footer at the halftime buzzer. It tied the game 20-20.
A designed play to Sonsini to start the second half gave the Cougars the lead and a bucket from Chaney Brown, assisted by Sonsini who was being double-teamed, put G-C ahead 24-20 just 40 seconds into the third quarter.
Three of New Palestine’s five made treys came in the next four minutes.
Kendra Moore, the coach’s daughter, hit both of her 3-point tries during the 13-2 run. She finished the game with a career-high 10 points, well above her 3.7 points per game average.
Her first trey cut G-C’s lead to 24-23. Cougar frosh Izzy Silcox scored to push it back to a three-point margin, but the Dragons scored the next 10 points.
Vivian Miller hit her third 3-pointer of the game to tie it, 26-26, and Allie Blum hit a short baseline jumper for a 28-26 New Pal lead. Moore hit her second trey with 3:08 left in the period. And after a G-C timeout, Blum, on the Dragons’ next possession, grabbed a loose ball for another bucket and a seven-point advantage, 33-26 with 1:55 left in the period.
“At the beginning of the game I had to call a timeout, and I told the girls we were back to our Triton Central game where nobody wanted to take a shot,” coach Moore said. “We were getting open looks but weren’t shooting the basketball. Being patient, reversing the basketball several times and getting open looks and taking the look was huge for us. Kendra did a really good job of stepping up and hitting those and Viv hit some nice 3s.”
The teams went back-and-forth in the first two quarters. The first half had three lead changes and three ties as both teams scored in spurts.
Greenfield-Central’s Brown scored the game’s first five points, but New Palestine answered with the next 10, including a pair of 3-pointers from Miller.
Again, Greenfield-Central started a quarter strong.
In the second, the Cougars scored the first six points to regain the lead, 13-12. Brown had a pair of buckets and Addi Herrin followed with a lay-in to give G-C the one-point advantage.
Kendra Moore scored to give the lead back to New Palestine, starting a 6-1 run. In transition off a rebound, Blum scored to give the Dragons an 18-14 lead with 1:22 left until the half.
Sonsini scored six of the next eight points, including her buzzer-beating heave to tie the game.
Blum led the Dragons with 13 points. Miller also scored 10.
Brown led all scorers with 17, including a third-quarter free throw that gave the junior the 1,000th-point of her high school career.
It followed Blum’s bucket to end the 13-2 run, but the Cougars could never regain momentum.
“Our bench went nuts and we got a couple more possessions and I thought we were going to get going the right way,” Key said. “That’s a scrappy team. If we’re going to be able to beat New Pal we’ve got to be able to fight with them. Kudos to New Pal.”
Sonsini, also a junior, had nine points and 10 rebounds.
“We’ve got great kids and got everyone back,” Key said. “… I’m looking forward to what this group can do next year. They’ve turned the program around. It’s not because what the coach has done, our kids come in and work hard. We went from nine wins to 14 wins to 17 and now we have everyone back.
“Seventeen wins is a great season no matter how you cut it.”
Blum grabbed eight boards. The Dragons out-rebounded the Cougars 33-22. Sophomore Sadey Hughbanks had six points and six rebounds.
“A great season for Greenfield,” coach Moore added. “They did a great job this year. We just beat a good basketball team and I’m proud of my girls.”
New Palestine 42, Greenfield-Central 35
Greenfield-Central;7;13;10;5;—;35
New Palestine;12;8;15;7;—;42
Greenfield-Central (17-7): Jalyn Smith 1 0-0 2, Chaney Brown 6 5-7 17, Madison Sonsini 3 2-4 9, Brooklyn McConnell 0 0-0 0, Izzy Silcox 2 0-0 5, Addi Herrin 1 0-0 2, Ainsley Robinson 0 0-0 0, Kynsey Hasty 0 0-0 0. Totals: 13 7-11 35.
New Palestine (13-10): Kendra Moore 4 0-0 10, Kylee Beranek 0 3-4 3, Sadey Hughbanks 3 0-0 6, Allie Blum 5 3-4 13, Vivian Miller 3 1-2 10, Kenna Tweedy 0 0-0 0. Totals: 15 7-11 42.
3-point goals: Greenfield-Central 2 (Sonsini, Silcox). New Palestine 5 (Miller 3, Moore 2).
