STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — St. Peter’s built an early double-digit lead and never looked back as it registered a 77-51 Borough President Vito Fossella SIHSL Tournament quarterfinal victory over McKee/Staten Island Tech Saturday at Petrides HS in Sunnyside.

The seven-time defending tourney champion Eagles, who had six players score seven-or-more points, gradually built their lead over the course of the first quarter.

St. Peter’s led 13-10 midway through the first when it staged a quarter-ending 12-2 run to grab control.

Noah Scott buried a trey, Aaron Vazquez hit an interior bucket and Nico Parlanti converted a turnover into a fast-break bucket to make it 20-10 with 2:00 remaining.

MSIT’s Ray Guerriero broke the spell with drive, but Christian Wiese hit SP’s third trey of the stanza and Ryan Freeman converted a rebound at the buzzer to give the Eagles a 25-12 advantage and they cruised the rest of the way.

“It’s been the same thing all year. We just played hard and together,’’ said Parlanti. ”We didn’t know much about them, but we know what we had to do. We defended and made the simple plays well today.’’

Player of the game

Parlanti has settled into his role as go-to guy nicely as he scored 20-or-more points for the third time in four games after tallying an even 20 against the Seagulls in a variety of ways. The two-year varsity player canned a season-high four three-pointers, tied for the game-high in rebounds with eight and also took a charge for the 10-11 Eagles.

“Nico’s development and commitment to the (program) has been unbelievable,’’ said SP head coach Ryan Woods. ”He’s a senior and recognizes how important his role is. He scores, he facilitates and rebounds, but it’s the intangibles (that put him over the top). He’s a great leader and teammate. We have a young squad, but he does a great job keeping us together and grounded.’’

MSIT’s Ray Guerriero finished with a game-high 24 points and led the Seagulls with six rebounds.

Highlights

Although Parlanti was the unquestioned leader in Saturday’s win, the Eagles had good balance. Juniors Vazquez and Victor Baez finished with 13 and 12 points, respectively; Sophomores Scott and Tyler Schoenberg chipped in with eight points apiece and Freeman finished with seven points. Ten of SP’s 13 players found the scoring column …

The Eagles led 37-25 at halftime and owned a 50-37 advantage with 1:42 left in the third quarter when they put together a 17-3 burst that bridged the final two periods. Parlanti led the run with eight points, including a pair of treys.

Coach’s take

“We know (Guerriero and Nizayah Jordan) are capable scorers and that Jordan can shoot it from deep,’’ said Woods of MSIT’s senior tandem. ”We know one is capable of going off, we couldn’t let both of them do that. Good players score, but I thought we did a good job limiting them (as we built our lead).’’

Jordan finished second in scoring for MSIT with 16 points, but the Eagles held him scoreless in the first half.

Next up

The No. 2-seeded Eagles will look to advance to the SIHSL Tournament championship game for the eighth straight season when they play in the semifinals on Monday. St. Peter’s will square off agains No. 3 Monsignor Farrell at Petrides beginning at 7 p.m.

The winner of that game will meet the Susan Wagner-St. Joseph by-the-Sea victor in the championship game Thursday at Petrides.

Stats corner

The Eagles won the battle of the boards, 39-33, behind Parlanti, Vazquez (eight) and Freeman (seven). Dalton Cherubin added five caroms for MSIT … The Seagulls did a superb job from the free-throw line, connecting on 24 of 28 attempts behind Jordan (9 for 10) and Guerriero (8 for 12); The Eagles only hit 7 of 13 freebies (Freeman 3 for 5) … SP only committed nine turnovers, MSIT 11 … St. Peter’s finished with eight treys overall. In addition to Parlanti, Scott buried two.