STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.\u2014 If you had asked St. Joseph Hill head coach Ashley Vogel whether she would trade two regular-season losses to Notre Dame for a playoff win over the Gators, it\u2019s safe to say she wouldn\u2019t have hesitated.<\/p>\n
On Thursday night, her Hilltoppers made good on that hypothetical, finally knocking off NDA in a dramatic 56\u201354 victory to secure their place in the CHSAA AA championship game against the Moore Catholic Mavericks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went into practice this week remembering they beat us twice; they\u2019re a great team that\u2019s well-coached, but we went in thinking we had nothing to lose,\u201d Vogel said after the contest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey beat us in Silent Night which is always a big game, and since that went to overtime we knew it would come down to it today. We were ready for a win and the girls came to play,\u201d she went on.<\/p>\n
One Hilltopper who clearly arrived ready for the moment was Brielle Longo. Amid a relatively tame outing for the usually dynamic duo of Lauren Rodriguez (10 points) and Ella Onesto (eight points) \u2014 who combined for 52 points during Silent Night \u2014 Longo stepped squarely into the spotlight.<\/p>\n
She embraced the role of Hill\u2019s primary scorer and delivered a team-high 19 points, displaying a deft balance of attacking the rim and perimeter shooting, knocking down three shots from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n
Her scoring output was even more impressive considering she was held scoreless in the third quarter while saddled with foul trouble. But Longo more than compensated in a dominant fourth, scoring nine clutch points \u2014 highlighted by a massive and-one with just over a minute remaining.<\/p>\n
Speaking on being calm, cool and collected down the stretch, Longo said that \u201cit\u2019s all about confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce I got the first few buckets early on, I could feel that confidence growing and I think that\u2019s what got me going,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Longo has also been on a tear for the Hilltoppers in recent weeks. While she may not have been on many radars at the start of the season, she has blossomed into a legitimate scoring threat for Vogel\u2019s squad \u2014 a surge underscored by her selection as the lone Hill representative on the Borough President Cup All-Tournament Team.<\/p>\n
Speaking on her significant improvement from the start of the season to now, while much of it has clearly come from within, she also said that \u201cit\u2019s all about my team believing in me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI also wanted to step up and become a leader, which is where I got my confidence from,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In addition to Longo\u2019s masterful performance, Hill\u2019s bench proved decisive when its usual one-two scoring punch fell somewhat short. Second-years Matia Neamonitis (seven points) and Christie Nembr (five points) supplied key contributions off the bench, earning praise from Vogel for the defensive presence they provided inside.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy team is young this year, and big two sophomores, Matia and Christie, stepped up for me in the paint,\u201d Vogel said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAliya Monroe on NDA [17 points] is a phenomenal basketball player, and they tried to contain her as much as much as they could. In the first half we didn\u2019t go big but we decided to in the second half, and I think that\u2019s what got us the win at the end of the day,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
![\"CHSAA](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/KC46UDTJVJHDPFNINO35ZHLGTE.jpg\")
St. Joseph Hill’s Lauren Rodriguez flips up the layup after getting fouled against Notre Dame Academy in the CHSAA Archdioscesan AA playoff semifinal at the College of Staten Island in Willowbrook on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (Advance\/SILive.com | Jason Paderon)(Advance\/SILive.com | Jason Paderon)<\/p>\n
While the Hilltoppers will undoubtedly savor what is arguably their biggest win of the season to date, there is little time to linger; a championship showdown with Moore Catholic now awaits.<\/p>\n
The Mavericks controlled their two regular-season meetings, winning by an average margin of 35 points, meaning Hill will likely need to deliver a near-flawless performance to engineer the upset. Still, Vogel believes her team has a blueprint to make it happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoore is well-coached, they\u2019re a well-oiled machine over there. Our biggest goal is going to be getting Mackenzie [Felci] out of the paint,\u201d Vogel shared.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully our bigs can give her a little bit of a run for her money and work hard. We also have to stop their shooters; their guards are tremendous too, so we\u2019re going to try to contain them as much as we possibly can,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n
The all-Island AA Championship game is slated for Saturday at the College of Staten Island, with tip-off set for 4 p.m.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771560608_657_WXTRZHGVH5BHZGLDGBUNKTZBZQ.png\")
Staten Island Advance<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.\u2014 If you had asked St. Joseph Hill head coach Ashley Vogel whether she would trade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-139645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139645","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=139645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}