Basketball Game Preview: Shelbyville Golden Bears vs. New Palestine Dragons

Shelbyville is 2-8 against New Palestine since December of 2015 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Shelbyville Golden Bears will challenge the New Palestine Dragons at 7:30 p.m. Both come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.

Shelbyville is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Wednesday. They managed a 52-46 victory over Rushville. Given the Golden Bears' advantage in MaxPreps' Indiana basketball rankings (they are ranked 106th, while the Lions are ranked 216th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Meanwhile, New Palestine took their match on Wednesday with ease, bagging a 51-23 win over Greenwood.

New Palestine's win came from a few key players Shelbyville will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Haven Flagle, who posted nine points and seven boards. The team also got some help courtesy of Kylee Beranek, who put up six points and nine rebounds.

The victory got New Palestine back to even at 11-11. As for Shelbyville, they have been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five games, which provided a massive bump to their 14-10 record this season.

Shelbyville didn't have too much breathing room in their contest against New Palestine when the teams last played back in December of 2024, but they still walked away with a 42-38 win. The rematch might be a little tougher for Shelbyville since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.