MANHATTAN \u2014 Staten Island Academy dropped a 59-56 heart-breaker to the Dwight School in the ACIS Championship on Friday at Grace Church in Manhattan. <\/p>\n
The Tigers, who entered the postseason tournament as the No. 2 seed, battled the top-seeded Lions and overcame a 14-point, second-half deficit to take a one-point lead in the final minutes of the fourth quarter. However, Dwight would be the team that made the plays down the stretch to emerge with the league\u2019s post-season crown.<\/p>\n
The Tigers were led by junior Gabe Moschella\u2019s game-high 23 points. Danny Nowak contributed 15 points while Luke DeVito added 11, including his 1,000th career point, which he notched with a layup off a baseline cut in the third quarter. <\/p>\n
Dwight was effective in attacking the Tigers\u2019 zone defense in the first quarter, as the Lions connected for three long-range treys in the period to take a 19-9 lead. SIA, as they have done most of the year when facing a deficit, showed its resilience by battling back to close the gap to 30-26 heading into halftime. Moschella scored six in the second to spearhead the Tigers\u2019 surge.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn four of our last five games, we\u2019ve gone down by double digits in the first half,\u201d Tigers head coach, Mike Mazella, lamented. \u201cWe haven\u2019t come out with the intensity that we need to, and we\u2019ve had to dig ourselves out of a hole. I love our fight and courage in coming back, but I wish we didn\u2019t keep putting ourselves in this position.\u201d<\/p>\n
Facing their largest deficit of the game in the third quarter, the Tigers mounted another comeback as Ayden Howe drained a three-pointer, and DeVito followed with one of his own before his layup cut Dwight\u2019s lead to seven and allowed the Tigers senior to reach the coveted scoring plateau. <\/p>\n
\u201cI would rather have scored no points today and gotten the win,\u201d DeVito mused. \u201cThe milestone is nice, but I\u2019m just thankful for the opportunity to play the game I love and for everyone who believed in me along the way. But, again, the championship was the big goal, not the 1,000 points.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the championship seemed to be within the Tigers\u2019 grasp, when Dwight\u2019s nine-point lead at the start of the final period was whittled away before a three-point play by Nowak gave SIA a 54-53 advantage, its first lead since the game\u2019s opening basket.<\/p>\n
Dwight, though, retook the lead on a steal and breakaway layup before two free throws from Milan Foye bumped the Lions\u2019 lead to 59-56. The Tigers were able to get a look at an open three at the buzzer, but the shot bounced off the rim, allowing Dwight to walk away with the title.<\/p>\n
The Tigers (20-5 overall, 13-4 ACIS) now await Saturday morning\u2019s release of the New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS) postseason bracket and hope to secure an at-large bid in the tournament that starts Thursday.<\/p>\n
HS girls\u2019 basketball<\/p>\n
NDA 52, Petrides 23<\/p>\n
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Notre Dame Academy closed out the regular season in memorable fashion, earning a decisive non-league victory over Petrides on Senior Night at the College of Staten Island\u2019s Sports and Recreation Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a fitting tribute to our program\u2019s veteran leadership, all five seniors played the entire game and each made their mark on the scoreboard,\u2019’ said NDA head coach Bobby DellaValle. \u201dThe balanced effort reflected both the unity and dedication that have defined this group of seniors throughout their high school career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emma Blomquist led the way with 15 points and Caroline Kasagrande followed with 10 markers. Ava Manzella, Addison Marrocco and Gianna Montagna added nine points apiece to round out the scoring for the senior class. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe collective contribution highlighted the team-first approach that has fueled us all year,\u2019’ DellaValle added.<\/p>\n
Petrides was paced by senior Mackenzie Terry, who finished with 12 points in her final regular-season appearance.<\/p>\n
With the win, the Gators concluded the regular season with a 12-9 record. NDA now turns its attention to postseason play, as they prepare for the Archdiocese playoffs next week against St. Joseph Hill. The date and time of the matchup are still to be determined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MANHATTAN \u2014 Staten Island Academy dropped a 59-56 heart-breaker to the Dwight School in the ACIS Championship on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-133630","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\/133630","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=133630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}