{"id":126431,"date":"2026-02-07T21:32:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T21:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/126431\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T21:32:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T21:32:25","slug":"susan-wagner-advances-to-sihsl-semifinals-behind-albanos-27-and-stout-team-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/126431\/","title":{"rendered":"Susan Wagner advances to SIHSL semifinals behind Albano\u2019s 27 and stout team defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.\u2014 Susan Wagner\u2019s Chris Albano has already inserted himself into the 2026 Jaques Award conversation, and after pouring in 27 points to guide the Falcons to a Borough President Vito Fossella SIHSL Tournament semifinal berth, the star guard has only strengthened his case for the honor.<\/p>\n

Accounting for nearly half of the team\u2019s offense, Albano\u2019s polished scoring ability powered Wagner to a hard-fought 56\u201348 win over PSAL rival Curtis, a victory also fueled by a strong defensive effort.<\/p>\n

Despite being undersized\u2014and facing Curtis\u2019 dynamic big man Jayden Faulkner\u2014the Falcons controlled the defensive glass, consistently crashing the boards to eliminate second-chance opportunities for the Warriors.<\/p>\n

Susan Wagner also held Curtis\u2019 point guard scoreless, repeatedly disrupting the Warriors\u2019 ball movement and entry into their half-court offense to complement their Albano\u2019s efficient scoring and secure the win.<\/p>\n

Player of the game: Chris Albano<\/p>\n

The guard\u2019s performance made him a no-brainer for Player of the Game honors, and he said his mindset of \u201ctrying to get downhill every chance I got and finish through contact\u201d was the key to his near 30-point outing.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also clearly got his priorities straight. When asked what the performance meant for his Jaques Award candidacy, he brushed it aside, saying, \u201cI don\u2019t really care about that. All I care about is winning a championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

That same focus showed when asked whether it felt sweeter to punch a ticket to the semifinals by beating a PSAL rival. \u201cIt feels good,\u201d he said, \u201cbut the job\u2019s not done. On to the next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turning point<\/p>\n

While neither team was able to pull away for most of the game, a key stretch came at the start of the second half. <\/p>\n

Holding a slim 25\u201320 halftime lead, the Falcons opened the third quarter with great energy, building a 33\u201324 advantage that appeared to give them the confidence to stay the course while planting a seed of doubt in the Warriors\u2019 minds\u2014prompting a timeout from Curtis.<\/p>\n

HighlightsCoach Lanigan\u2019s take<\/p>\n

Speaking with Falcons head coach Danny Lanigan after the contest about how his team\u2014despite lacking a true dominant big\u2014rebounded so well, he said that \u201cwe don\u2019t really have a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCurtis is just like every other opponent\u2014bigger than us. It takes everybody on the roster to rebound because we can\u2019t rely on one or two guys, and we did a pretty good job as a team rebounding today.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for how well his defense did in stopping the Warriors\u2019 floor general from scoring, Lanigan said that \u201cwe knew it was going to be really difficult, but the point guard is really more of a distributor anyway. So it wasn\u2019t so much being focused on stopping him from scoring compared to the other guys, but we\u2019re happy to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lastly, when asked how his No. 1-seeded Falcons will prepare to earn a trip to the championship game, Lanigan said that \u201cwe\u2019ll make adjustments internally; we weren\u2019t thinking about anything past today, just trying to survive and advance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew this game was going to be a war with so much riding on it; fortunately we were able to win, and this will be a different Super Bowl Sunday for us with the quick turnaround, but we\u2019re looking forward to watching the film and getting ready for Monday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SusanSusan Wagner’s Darin Humes-James dictates the Falcons’ offense during a SIHSL quarterfinal game vs. Curtis on Feb. 7, 2026.Michael O’BrienNext up<\/p>\n

With the victory, the Falcons will now face the No. 4-seeded St. Joseph by-the-Sea Vikings with a trip to the title game on the line, tipping off Monday at Petrides at either 5 p.m. or 7 p.m.<\/p>\n

Stats corner<\/p>\n

In addition to Albano\u2019s standout performance, Darin Humes-James also chipped in offensively for the Falcons with 13 points, the only other Wagner player to score in double figures.<\/p>\n

Despite the loss, Makhiye Washington delivered a strong showing for the Warriors, finishing with 23 points after being held scoreless in the first quarter.<\/p>\n

\"\"Staten Island Advance<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.\u2014 Susan Wagner\u2019s Chris Albano has already inserted himself into the 2026 Jaques Award conversation, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-126431","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\/126431","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=126431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}