Saturday wrap: Hoops & wrestling

Boys basketball
New Palestine 64, Franklin Central 63: The Dragons won a see-saw battle against the Flashes with some clutch play at the end of the game.

The Dragons trailed 60-57 when Justin Ikerd hit a 3-pointer to knot the game up in the late stages. Then, Josh Penley got a steal and turned it into a basket to give the Dragons the lead. The Dragons then forced a stop and Michael Morris drained two free throws with 3 seconds left to ice it.

Four Dragons scored in double-figures as they improved to 5-1 on the season. Morris had a 17-point night, hitting 5-of-9 shots and adding nine rebounds and four assists. Ikerd scored 15 points, hitting five 3-pointers and grabbing four rebounds. Penley had 12 points, nine rebounds, two assists and two steals, while junior guard Solomon Haynes had a season-high 10 points on 3-of-4 shooting, three assists and two steals. Senior Reid Clark added six points, five rebounds and a team-high three steals.

The Dragons rallied from deficits of 20-13 after a quarter and 34-26 at the half, taking the lead by scoring 20 third-quarter points and going ahead 46-44, setting up a see-saw finish.

The Dragons' next game will be Wednesday at Beech Grove. It will be broadcast live by HancockCountySports.com

Mt. Vernon 60, Whiteland 31: The Marauders posted lopsided victories in back-to-back games, beating a Whiteland team that came into the game with a 4-1 record and had just beaten Center Grove.

The Marauders, now 4-2, won their two weekend games by a combined score of 137-79. They will next play Jan. 27 in the Hancock County Tournament, visiting Eastern Hancock at 10 a.m. in the morning session before hosting the championship/consolation games at 6 p.m.

Cambridge City Lincoln 65, Eastern Hancock 54: The Royals trailed 27-22 at halftime, and then saw Cambridge City Lincoln pull away in the second half.

CCL was led by Zac Rea, who nearly had a triple-double with 19 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists. Jared Pyle scored in double-figures for the Royals.

The Royals are now 4-3 and play Tuesday at Blue River.

Girls basketball
Eastern Hancock 57, Northeastern 54: Playing less than 24 hours after their hard-fought game against Knightstown, the Royals rallied from a nine-point deficit in the final three minutes to beat Northeastern.

EH trailed 28-20 at halftime after Northeastern scored 23 in the second quarter, but the Royals chipped away, cutting the deficit to 37-33 at the end of three.

The Royals had tremendous balance in scoring, as six players scored between seven and 11 points.

Lauren Harmon led the way for the Royals, scoring 11 points to pace a balanced attack. She hit three 3-pointers and also added six rebounds. Alora Marshall had 10 points, four rebounds and two steals. Skyler Overleese also scored nine points, with Hannah Best adding eight points and four assists. Guard Kiersten Schrope had seven points, seven boards, four assists and two steals. Kaytlin Eastes had seven points and six boards, while Kristen Eischen had five points. Peyton Neisler had five rebounds off the bench.

The Royals are now 7-2 and play Tuesday at home against Cambridge City Lincoln.

New Palestine 65, Yorktown 24: The Dragons jumped ahead 19-2 after a quarter and used a strong defensive effort to pull away. The Dragons got a lot of production from throughout their lineup.

Tori Stephenson led the way with three 3-pointers and 15 points to go along with eight steals, hitting a pair of triples in the second quarter to help the Dragons open up a 37-9 halftime lead. NP's defense held Yorktown to two points in the third, with the Dragons leading 51-11.

Lauren Tieman added 12 points and eight rebounds. Bethany Murrell scored 12 points -- all early -- and added a strong all-around game with 12 points, nine assists, six rebounds, four steals and four blocked shots. Taylor Espich had a career-high 10 points, four assists and three steals, making her first career start.

Emily Curry and Abby Seifert each scored seven points. Seifert also added eight rebounds and four steals.

The Dragons' defense forced 20 steals and 30 turnovers, leading to 38 Dragon points.

The Dragons' next game will be against Greenfield-Central in the Hancock County Tournament on Dec. 27. 

Wrestling
New Palestine wins Dragon 5-way: The Dragons won a thrilling 34-33 decision over Greenfield-Central to take the New Palestine 5-way duals Saturday afternoon.


The Dragons also beat Mt. Vernon 84-0, Union County 60-15 and Triton Central 66-6 en route to the victory. The Dragons are now 18-1 on the season in dual matches.

Greenfield-Central is now 12-3. The Cougars beat Mt. Vernon 82-0, Union County 60-14 and Triton Central 58-15. 

For New Palestine, Willie Bryan (285), Tommy Cash (106), Taylor Fee (120), Gordon Wagner (126), Billy Emmons (113), Nick Ulrey (145) and Connor Robinson (160) all won their matches against G-C in their dual meet, with Bryan, Cash and Robinson all winning by fall and Emmons taking a forfeit. Fee won a major decision wrestling up a weight class.

Bryan, Cash, Fee, Ulrey and Robinson were all 5-0 on the day. In addition, Rylan McCarty was 3-0 at 120. Gordon Wagner, Brian Wagner, Cameron Denney, Matt Roembke and Robbie Elsea all went 3-1, with Wagner wrestling the match of the day, taking two-time state champion Cody Phillips of Union County the distance before falling 9-6. Ulrey and G-C's Josh Farrell -- also a state-ranked wrestler -- had a down-to-the-wire match that wasn't decided until the final takedown in the closing seconds.


Greenfield-Central's Kyle Wilburn, Ian Early, Farrell, Austin Rose and Dezmen McGinley all went 4-0 on the day.

Mt. Vernon went 0-4 as a team.

Swimming
Greenfield-Central's boys finished fourth in the Hamilton Southeastern invitational, with two school records being set. Jon McCormick set a record finishing fifth in the 100 breaststroke at 1:02.33. The 400 free relay of Patrick Stutz, Wilburn, Wilburn and James Young finished fourht and set a record in 3:21.28. Other top-8 finishers were Young (4th 100 fly, 8th 200 free), Stutz (2nd 50 free, 6th 100 free), McCormick (4th, 200 IM0 and the 200 free relay of Stutz, Wilburn, Young and Wilburn, which finished 2nd. The 200 medley relay was seventh.


G-C's girls finished eighth. Carly Fernandes was fifth in the 100 backstroke and seventh in the 200 IM.