By Brady Extin | Daily Reporter
GREENFIELD — One team entered on a four-game skid, and the other entered on a five-game winning streak.
Neither of those things mattered Friday night inside Greenfield-Central’s Dellen Automotive Gymnasium when the Cougars defeated the New Palestine Dragons 52-38 in a girls basketball battle between Hancock County and Hoosier Heritage Conference rivals.
The win was G-C’s first over New Palestine in the last 10 meetings dating back to Dec. 11, 2015.
“It’s huge for the program,” Greenfield-Central head coach Bradley Key said. “We’ve worked really hard the past few years and maybe haven’t gotten some of the results we were hoping for, but our kids have stuck with it and have kept believing. As a coach, you want to see it pay off for them, because you know they’re working hard and buying in.”
The key to G-C’s success was shutting down the HHC’s leading scorer, Isabella Gizzi.
The New Palestine senior, who is ranked second in the state among Class 4A scorers, came into the night averaging 26 points per game.
The Cougars held her scoreless in the first half and limited her to a total of just nine points.
“That was all team effort. She’s a great player, so just making sure she doesn’t get in the lane,” Key said. “A player like that, if she gets comfortable, it’s going to be a long night for everyone. Tonight, we just didn’t let her get in a rhythm. We caught her on an off-night, and our defense was great.”
After a low-scoring first quarter, G-C came out firing to open up the second.
A Chaney Brown jumper, and then back-to-back Brooklyn McConnell baskets, opened up the G-C lead to 14-3.
The Cougars used that spark to take a 21-15 halftime lead.
Gizzi’s first two baskets of the night came late in the third quarter and cut the G-C lead to 26-23.
With momentum looking to be shifting towards the Dragons, the Cougars closed out the remaining three minutes of the quarter on a 7-0 run.
It was McConnell striking again to open up the fourth quarter with another 3-pointer to increase the G-C lead back to 13, 36-23.
She closed things out for the Cougars, scoring 10 points in the fourth quarter, and led all scorers with 19 points.
“It’s a confidence thing. She really struggled last year in the sectional against New Pal. We just told her you’re a great player, get us into sets and your shots will come,” Key said. “That’s exactly what happened tonight. She did a great job of getting us into our offense, and then when things broke down, she was open, and she has the green light at all times.”
While McConnell led the way, it was a team effort for the Cougars offensively. Something they aren’t typically accustomed to.
“Offensively, we started to come together,” Key said. “We’ve had some games where we had one or two people do well on offense, but tonight it was team basketball, and that’s exactly what you practice for and preach, so I couldn’t be more proud of that group.”
All seven players that saw the floor for G-C found the basket.
Brown added 14 points, Aryana Hibbard had seven, Katie Holmes had six, Jalyn Smith had three, Kammi Anderson hit a late layup to help seal the win, and Taylor Smith had one.
“That’s a really good New Pal team, and they’ve got one of the better players in the state, so that was just a tremendous team job by us,” Key added. “It wasn’t just one person, it was all seven that got to play, so I couldn’t be happier.”
Vivian Miller led New Palestine with 16 points. She was followed up by Gizzi’s nine, Tylar Whitaker’s six and Allie Blum’s five.
“That’s a great program, and we want to get to that level,” Key said. “And feel like we’re working really hard to get there, so I’m just really proud of them tonight.”
Greenfield-Central 52, New Palestine 38
New Palestine;3;12;10;13; —;38
Greenfield-Central;7;14;12;19; — ;52
New Palestine (7-4, 3-1): Isabella Gizzi 4 0-1 9, Vivian Miller 4 6-8 16, Allie Blum 2 0-0 5, Sadey Hughbanks 0 0-0 0, Kylee Beranek 0 0-0 0, Tylar Whitaker 1 4-4 6, Natalie Sevier 0 2-2 2. Totals: 11 12-15 38.
Greenfield-Central (4-6, 1-1): Chaney Brown 4 6-6 14, Aryana Hibbard 1 4-4 7, Brooklyn McConnell 6 3-5 19, Katie Holmes 3 0-0 6, Jalyn Smith 1 1-2 3, Taylor Smith 0 1-2 1, Kammi Anderson 1 0-0 2. Totals: 16 15-19 52.
3-point goals: New Palestine 4 (Miller 2, Gizzi 1, Blum 1); Greenfield-Central 5 (McConnell 4, Hibbard 1)
