{"id":101085,"date":"2026-01-15T13:22:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T13:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/101085\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T13:22:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T13:22:28","slug":"staten-island-hs-girls-hoops-second-half-woes-doom-sea-as-it-drops-55-51-decision-to-xaverian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/101085\/","title":{"rendered":"Staten Island HS girls\u2019 hoops: Second-half woes doom Sea as it drops 55-51 decision to Xaverian"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – St. Joseph by-the-Sea, plagued by a cold second-half offensive output, dropped a 55-51 decision to Xaverian Wednesday night in Huguenot. <\/p>\n

Playing each other for the second time in six days, Olivia DiMonda (four treys) scored 25 points for the Vikings while Xaverian\u2019s Isabella Grimaldi led all scorers with 30 markers.<\/p>\n

Giovanna Grima and Maria O\u2019Connell (two treys) gave in eight and six points, respectively, for Sea while Callie Mullin contributed for the Clippers with 17 markers.<\/p>\n

\"XaverianWhile Sea led for the better half of the contest, the Clippers held on at the end of the contest to record the win. Sea’s Olivia DiMonda shoots a trey. (Annie DeBiase for the Advance\/SILive.com)(Annie DeBiase for the Advance\/SILive.com)<\/p>\n

Xaverian also hit a whopping 10 shots from beyond the arc, with Grimaldi and Mullin scoring five and four treys, while Sea hit seven.<\/p>\n

For Sea head coach Josh Suslak, the loss marked a disappointing three-game streak that saw the Vikings give up a substantial halftime lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a decent lead going into halftime for three games now and then give it right back in the second half. I don\u2019t know if the girls get a little complacent, which we certainly emphasize the opposite in the locker room, and feel they can coast to a win,\u201d lamented Suslak. \u201cI loved what we did in the first half and thought we were executing really well, but we just got a little cold in the second.\u201d<\/p>\n

DiMonda opened the game for the Vikings like a house on fire, scoring their first 10 points on the strength of two treys. Xaverian, however, often answered right back as it took two one-possession leads on two separate occasions (including a Grimaldi three-point play to open its scoring.)<\/p>\n

\"XaverianWhile Sea led for the better half of the contest, the Clippers held on at the end of the contest to record the win. Sea’s Alicia Conti, in white, battles for a rebound against Xaverian’s Isabella Grimaldi (behind) and Victoria Gauto (partially hidden). (Annie DeBiase for the Advance\/SILive.com)(Annie DeBiase for the Advance\/SILive.com)<\/p>\n

With a 13-10 lead going into the second stanza, Sea created a little separation thanks to DiMonda and Grima, with the former sandwiching a three-point play with a trey and jumper in the paint. But, while the home team held two separate seven-point leads during the quarter, Grimaldi and Mullin teamed for 16 points to give the Clippers a 27-26 lead with 2:26 remaining in the half.<\/p>\n

DiMonda, however, scored five straight points to aid the Vikings\u2019 cause before Victoria Gauto scored her only points via a layup for the Brooklyn school. But, with 18.1 seconds remaining and following a Sea timeout, DiMonda found Grima in the right corner to hit a buzzer-beating trey, giving Suslak\u2019s troops a 34-29 lead going into halftime.<\/p>\n

\"XaverianWhile Sea led for the better half of the contest, the Clippers held on at the end of the contest to record the win. Sea’s Giovanna Grima goes up for the layup as Xaverian defends. (Annie DeBiase for the Advance\/SILive.com)(Annie DeBiase for the Advance\/SILive.com)<\/p>\n

\u201cOlivia has come a long way, learning to control herself and making better decisions,\u201d commented Suslak. \u201cShe was hot early on, but we needed other girls to step up and do some big things. We had some moments in the third when they did, but it wasn\u2019t good enough, especially in the fourth.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Xaverian held DiMonda scoreless in the third, O\u2019Connell\u2019s two treys boosted Sea while Lila Goldstein and Grima added two points apiece. Along with a strong defensive effort during the quarter, which held the Clippers to four points over seven minutes, Sea held the largest lead of the game, 44-34.<\/p>\n

\"XaverianWhile Sea led for the better half of the contest, the Clippers held on at the end of the contest to record the win. Sea’s Maria O’Connell shoots a trey. (Annie DeBiase for the Advance\/SILive.com)(Annie DeBiase for the Advance\/SILive.com)<\/p>\n

However, Grimaldi scored seven points in less than a minute to cut Sea\u2019s lead to one possession (44-41) going into the final quarter. The junior, throughout the game, was aided through her step-back treys, throwing off the defender with her quickness to pull up. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve known Izzy and her family since she was in seventh grade, and she\u2019s just a phenomenal player and tremendous athlete,\u201d said Suslak. \u201cWe certainly game-planned for her and did good things at times, but she just got a hot hand that helped them jump over us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"XaverianWhile Sea led for the better half of the contest, the Clippers held on at the end of the contest to record the win. Staten Islander and Xaverian star Isabella Grimaldi shoots one of her five treys as Sea’s Isabella Castania defends. (Annie DeBiase for the Advance\/SILive.com)(Annie DeBiase for the Advance\/SILive.com)<\/p>\n

While the game went back and forth in the final quarter, the Clippers outscored Sea, 14-7, to earn the victory. Particularly, with the game tied at 51, Grimaldi hit one more step-back trey to give Xaverian the lead for good with 3:37 to go.<\/p>\n

While the Vikings had several quality opportunities to score the equalizer, nothing materialized as Mullin iced the game with a late free throw.<\/p>\n

\u201cI give credit to Xaverian, they hit some big shots that I thought we did a good job on,\u201d concluded Suslak, whose team beat the Clippers, 73-70, in overtime last week. \u201cWe had to out-physical them on the boards and come through with a couple more plays and shots that we were hitting early on, and it didn\u2019t happen for us tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"XaverianWhile Sea led for the better half of the contest, the Clippers held on at the end of the contest to record the win. Sea head coach Josh Suslak speaks to his team during a timeout. (Annie DeBiase for the Advance\/SILive.com)(Annie DeBiase for the Advance\/SILive.com)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – St. Joseph by-the-Sea, plagued by a cold second-half offensive output, dropped a 55-51 decision…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-101085","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}