![\"Protecting](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/3WKQ2C567FE3NGCHDJGHJNGTAQ.jpg\")
Tottenville’s Elias Souleidis (10) guards New Dorp’s Omari Onwe during a PSAL 3A division contest on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025.(Advance\/SILive.com | Charlie De Biase Jr.)<\/p>\nSTATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Tottenville\u2019s Elias Souleidis finished with a double-double on Thursday, yet you can make the argument his biggest contribution was a pass he made in overtime.<\/p>\n
The senior said dishing has its rewards.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love passing. I love it,\u2019’ said Souleidis, who missed all of his junior year because of an injury. \u201dIt\u2019s a great feeling \u2014 especially when (my teammates) get buckets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen everyone is happy.\u2019’<\/p>\n
Souleidis, who finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds, made a nifty pass to Michael Cinque for the go-ahead basket in overtime as the Pirates went on to a 49-45 PSAL 3A division victory over host New Dorp.<\/p>\n
Fellow senior Danny Garcia tied Souleidis for the team high in points with 14 while Antonio Tarantino and Shiloh Ezderman (game-high 14 rebounds) combined for another 13 markers. The Pirates (3-1 overall, 2-0 PSAL) won their third straight game.<\/p>\n
New Dorp senior Omari Onwe, who spearheaded a fourth-quarter surge by the Centrals to force OT, finished with a game-high 17 points, including three treys.<\/p>\n
\u201cI liked the way we were playing \u2014 slow and in control, going inside to (Souleidis) and (Garcia) creating. We were going to live with the result whether we missed or scored,\u2019’ said Tottenville head coach Kevin Alesi. \u201cAnytime we come in here, we know (New Dorp head coach Pat Hopkins) is going to do a good job and they\u2019re going to be ready to go and they made a run (in the fourth quarter).<\/p>\n
\u201cBut going into overtime, it\u2019s 42-42 and on the varsity level, that\u2019s exactly the game we want to play,\u2019’ continued the coach. \u201dIf we find ourselves in the 60s or 70s, the other team is probably in the 100s because we\u2019re not good enough to play at that speed. We want to play like the 1994 (Cleveland Cavaliers).\u2019’<\/p>\n
Tottenville’s Elias Souleidis (10) guards New Dorp’s Omari Onwe during a PSAL 3A division contest on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025.(Advance\/SILive.com | Charlie De Biase Jr.)<\/p>\n
In other words, winning ugly, so to speak.<\/p>\n
When Souleidis opened the fourth by converting a rebound into a bucket, the Pirates had a game-high, nine-point lead (37-28) and a world of momentum.<\/p>\n
But the Centrals (3-1 overall, 2-1 PSAL) wouldn\u2019t go quietly and slowly but surely chipped away behind Onwe. With Tottenville\u2019s lead down to 37-31, the southpaw scored New Dorp\u2019s last 11 points \u2014 including two treys and a conventional three-point play \u2014 in the last 5:17 to force extra session.<\/p>\n
The score remained 42-42 until the Pirates finally took control at the halfway point of the four-minute overtime.<\/p>\n
The 6-foot-4 Souleidis got a touch in the post just below the left elbow and had prepared to take a short jumper when he found Cinque cutting to the hoop along the left baseline. The latter proceeded to lay it in to give the visitors a 44-42 lead with 2:10 on the clock.<\/p>\n
\u201cI took one dribble, put my shoulder into (the defender\u2019s) chest and jumped up, looking to score, but I saw my teammate wide open cutting in,\u2019’ said Souleidis. \u201dI made a great pass, he made a great shot and that was probably the biggest play of the game.\u2019’<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw (Souleidis) make a great move and I cut to the basket,\u2019’ explained Cinque. \u201dI wasn\u2019t nervous. Just playing basketball. I thought \u2018don\u2019t miss the layup\u2019 and it feels amazing (to come through with a big shot).\u2019’<\/p>\n
The Pirates weren\u2019t done. <\/p>\n
Ezderman, who was a monster on the boards all game, had a put back with 1:26 left and after the Tots got another stop, point guard Tarantino drove left and scored to make the score 48-42 with just 47 ticks left.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Ezderman\u2019s) motor was excellent and he just plays hard. He outworked everyone today and got rewarded\u201a\u2019\u2019 said Alesi. \u201dAnd I thought (Taratino) added a big bucket late in the game and it made a difference.\u2019’<\/p>\n
Garcia hit 1 of 2 freebies with 15.8 seconds left before New Dorp\u2019s Rocco Fiorenza nailed a three at the buzzer.<\/p>\n
NOTES: Souleidis\u2019 10 points and seven boards helped the Pirates take a 25-22 lead into the lockers during a nip-and-tuck first half … The Pirates won the battle of the boards 38-30. In addition to Ezderman and Souleidis, Cinque chipped in with four boards. Sergio Batista led ND with eight caroms … Josh Carter chipped in with 10 points for the Centrals … New Dorp committed 14 turnovers, Tottenville 17 … The Tots connected on 13 of 20 free throws (Garcia 5 for 7); ND was 8 for 13 (Carter 6 for 8). … Onwe and James Flores took charges for ND, while Tarantino drew one for Tottenville.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Tottenville\u2019s Elias Souleidis finished with a double-double on Thursday, yet you can make the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-61774","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\/61774","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=61774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}