STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — It wasn\u2019t always pretty, but in a back-and-forth game of runs St. Joseph by-the-Sea had the last one in a crucial 70-63 CHSAASI\/CHSAA A road victory over Moore Catholic in overtime, Wednesday night in Graniteville.<\/p>\n
The Vikings and Mavs traded leads numerous times over the contest\u2019s second-half with the home team grabbing a 56-52 lead with just over four minutes to play on a putback from Matt Mieles, but Mike Cortese\u2019s gritty club closed regulation on a 6-2 run and dominated the four-minute extra session sparked by their defense to earn the hard-fought win.<\/p>\n
The triumph upped the Huguenot school\u2019s record to 4-1 in the CHSAASI, and with a win over rival Monsignor Farrell Friday evening, can clinch the Island crown. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t panic and it has been the same motto we have had all year long and that\u2019s one possession at a time,\u201d explained Cortese. \u201cI was really proud of our defense tonight as we got a bunch of stops down the stretch and into the OT that really keyed the win.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the Vikings got off to a blistering start in league play (3-0), they have struggled a bit as of late and Cortese feels the win was just what the team needed in a hostile environment. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe lost a tough, one-point game at St. Peter\u2019s and lost starting guard Nick Lee (eye injury) most likely for the year and then we went out and got drilled by 30 against St. John\u2019s Prep,\u201d said Cortese. \u201cIt\u2019s also been tough not practicing because of mid-term exams, so to get a win like this is a great feeling for the boys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cortese got big games from leading scorer Nick Rebracca (23 points) and a season-high from two-sport star Joey Moran to spark the victory.<\/p>\n
Rebracca did most of his damage in the middle two quarters when he scored 13 points, but he also made his presence felt in crunch time as he sank 6 of 8 freebies in the final period and OT.<\/p>\n
Moran, meanwhile, was a force on the offensive and defensive end. In addition to his season-high in points, he snared 11 rebounds and had four pilfers on the evening. Junior point man John Paturzo had a strong floor game and tossed in 14 for the Vikings.<\/p>\n
Moore\u2019s senior backcourt trio of Matt Gibbons (16 points, three treys), Eenej Vinson (15 points) and Nick DeGrado (12) did all they could to attempt to get the Mavs their initial CHSAASI triumph, but it wasn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n
Port Richmond 71, Eagle Academy (SI) 65<\/p>\n
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The Raiders picked up their second PSAL 3A win of the year with the road triumph at IS 49, Stapleton.<\/p>\n
Aaron Bramble led the attack for PR with a game-high 24 points, while Andrew Lawrence and Emmanuel Gay also posted double-figure performances with 21 and 15 points, respectively.<\/p>\n
The winners trailed by 10 points at the break, but a 23-10 third period keyed the victory for coach Jeremy Smalls\u2019 club.<\/p>\n
Lawrence and Gay teamed for 16 points in the stanza as the Raider defense stepped up. <\/p>\n
Javon Jordan netted a team-best 16 markers for Eagle, while Armani Perez and Juneek Daniels split 24.<\/p>\n
PR faces New Dorp, while Eagle visits Tottenville Thursday evening in a pair of 6 p.m. tips.<\/p>\n
New Dorp 93, Petrides 54<\/p>\n
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The division leading Centrals coasted to the easy PSAL 3A win over the Panthers on the road in Sunnyside.<\/p>\n
Head coach Pat Hopkins\u2019 club received a well-balanced attack as five players registered double-digits.<\/p>\n
Sergio Battista (two treys) led the way with 21 points, while Omari Onwe had 20. Vincenzo Fiorenza knocked down three from beyond the arc en route to 17, while Joshua Carter and Elijah Pizarro split 24.<\/p>\n
The Centrals bolted out of the gates with a huge 26-point opening period to take immediate control and never looked back in moving to 10-2 in the division. Onwe led the first quarter outburst with nine points, while Battista had eight.<\/p>\n
ND shot 13 for 19 from the line and canned 10 threes on the evening. <\/p>\n
Jaiden Brown led the Panthers with 24, while Kareem Nesbitt and Jason Dennis each had nine.<\/p>\n
The Centrals close out their Island 3A schedule Thursday evening (6 p.m.) at Port Richmond, while Petrides visits MSIT at 6 also.<\/p>\n
Avenues 78, SIA 66<\/p>\n
The Tigers dropped their second consecutive ACIS decision, as they fell to Avenues The World School, 78-66, on Wednesday night in Manhattan.<\/p>\n
SIA (16-2 overall, 10-2 ACIS), which had opened the season with 16 consecutive wins, slipped out of a first place tie in the ACIS with the loss.<\/p>\n
Luke DeVito led the Tigers in scoring with 21 points, while Danny Nowak added 14 and Mike Belkin scored a career-high 13. Gabe Moschella added eight, and Johnny Elefterakis chipped in with seven.<\/p>\n
SIA got off to a rough start as Avenues\u2019 do-everything big man, Shawn McLean, had his way with the Tigers, scoring 14 of his game-high 32 points in the first quarter. The Manhattan hosts jumped all over the Tigers, racing to a 17-2 lead before the Tigers found their footing and started chipping away at the sizable deficit. In fact, SIA, behind, Belkin\u2019s nine points in the period, would outscore the Aviators 22-10 in the second to claim a 36-31 halftime lead. <\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t recognize our team in the first quarter,\u201d Tiger head coach Mike Mazella observed. \u201cIn the second period, we steadied the ship and were able to grab the lead, but in the second half, our defense was the worst it\u2019s been all year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Avenues would connect for 10 three-pointers in the contest and drained four long-range treys in each of the final two quarters taking full advantage of the Tigers\u2019 shoddy defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fourth quarter was an embarrassment,\u201d Mazella lamented. \u201cWe were outscored 25-10, and we just couldn\u2019t get a stop. Our inability to contain the ballhandler, locate shooters, contest shots, and slow McLean was shocking.\u201d<\/p>\n
McLean would finish the Tigers off with 10 fourth quarter points, sending SIA to their second loss of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not in rhythm right now,\u201d Mazella commented, \u201cand we better get it right in a hurry, because we will have a quick exit in the playoffs if we keep playing this way. And then no one will remember our great start to the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Tigers look to get back on track on Friday when they host Berkeley Carroll in an ACIS match-up.<\/p>\n
JV<\/p>\n
Avenues 54, SIA 51<\/p>\n
The Tigers dropped the ACIS road encounter with Avenues, falling short in overtime, 54-51. <\/p>\n
Rob Esposito tallied 17 points to lead the Tigers while Josiah Wheatley-Harewood chipped in with 10. Nate Wildrick added nine, and Patrick Sheehan tossed in seven.<\/p>\n
A back-and-forth first-half found the short-handed Tigers navigating some foul trouble, and then the visitors found themselves trailing by 14 in the third quarter after Avenues went on an 18-2 run.<\/p>\n
SIA, though, would storm back, ultimately catching the Aviators and tying the game on a Wheatley-Harewood basket with seconds left in regulation. <\/p>\n
In the extra session, though, the Tigers (8-5 overall; 7-4 ACIS) could only manage four points, as Avenues was able to end SIA\u2019s five-game winning streak. <\/p>\n
The Tigers are back in action on Friday when Berkeley Carroll comes to Dongan Hills to battle in an ACIS contest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — It wasn\u2019t always pretty, but in a back-and-forth game of runs St. Joseph by-the-Sea…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-116297","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\/116297","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=116297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}