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<\/p>\nSTATEN ISLAND, N.Y.\u2014 The Tottenville Pirates have made it two straight wins in PSAL 4A play to open their 2025\u201326 campaign, securing a 68\u201352 victory over the visiting Susan Wagner Falcons on Friday night.<\/p>\n
Despite the final score, Wagner pushed the home team early, trailing by just 21\u201318 in the second quarter. Sensing the need for adjustments, the Pirates came out of a timeout with renewed intensity, turning up their fast-paced offense and closing the half on a decisive 20\u20137 run to take a 41\u201325 lead into the break.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got into some foul trouble and had a few players pick up their third foul, so we made some adjustments and focused on our press break,\u201d Pirates head coach Jessica Althoff said of the change in game flow.<\/p>\n
\u201cWagner always gives us a tough game, and we missed too many shots early \u2014 especially layups and open looks\u2014but the girls responded well. They kept their heads up, took control of the tempo, and leaned into our identity as a running team. As long as we control the pace, we\u2019ll be in good shape the rest of the season.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1\/10<\/p>\n
Susan Wagner vs. Tottenville<\/p>\n
The Pirates\u2019 second half featured a much-improved halfcourt offense as the frenetic pace of the opening quarters slowed, highlighted by Tottenville junior Emily Salafia (13 points) drilling a trio of three-pointers in the third quarter, much to the delight of her head coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmily was great for me today,\u201d Althoff shared.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to control the tempo \u2014 push the pace early, then slow it down and run our offense. We missed too many shots, but defensively we did a great job. Energy is something we constantly emphasize, and the girls brought that today. We just need to keep communicating on defense and making adjustments,” she added.<\/p>\n
Also contributing greatly to the Pirates\u2019 victory was star junior Grace Anderson, who unsurprisingly finished as her team\u2019s high scorer on the evening (17 points), prompting her coach to call her \u201can overall well-rounded player.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGrace is great. Even though she didn\u2019t score as much as usual because of the defensive attention she drew, she impacted the game in every other way. She rebounds, distributes the ball and sees the floor well; she\u2019s going to be tough for anyone to guard,\u201d Althoff said.<\/p>\n
Wagner senior Casey McKinney continued her stellar start to the season despite the loss, pouring in a game-high 30 points and consistently making her presence felt in the paint throughout the night.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on what the Pirates can take from McKinney\u2019s night as to how they can better defend a dynamic post player in the future, Althoff said, \u201cWe\u2019ve got to step up and take charges. I know it\u2019s hard for girls and that they can get intimidated, but they have to be willing to step in and take that charge.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe work on it every day. It\u2019s something that doesn\u2019t come naturally \u2014 you have to do it. Casey goes hard to the ball, so if you get her in foul trouble, that\u2019s how you can take her out of the play. She\u2019s a great player, but we don\u2019t have that height, so that\u2019s something we lack.”<\/p>\n
Now with two convincing league wins under their belt, Althoff pointed to a challenging stretch ahead, highlighted by highly anticipated matchups against borough foe St. Joseph by-the-Sea and division rival Curtis.<\/p>\n
![\"Tottenville](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ENUUYOGJ45A2BLEYL7U5XDYB7M.JPG\")
Tottenville head coach Jessica Althoff applauds her teams efforts during a game against Susan Wagner on Dec. 12, 2025.Michael O’Brien<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a big week for us. I did schedule a lot of very hard non-league games for us; in addition to Sea, we play Xaverian, McClancy and St. Anthony\u2019s, so that\u2019s where we want to get that competition. That\u2019s going to really test my girls, and that\u2019s how we get better,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n
After a meeting with HS Fashion Industries on Saturday, the Pirates will prepare to clash with the Vikings on Dec. 16 at 6:15 p.m. before hosting the Warriors on Dec. 19 at 5:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
McKee\/Staten Island Tech 37, New Utrecht 17<\/p>\n
BROOKLYN, N.Y. \u2014 Eva Paraskevadis netted 14 points and Thalia Treasure added 13 as the Seagulls, 5-0 in the PSAL 3A Conference, won the non-league game on the road Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood non-league win and excellent team defense led to the victory,\u201d said MSIT head coach Peter LaMarca. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.\u2014 The Tottenville Pirates have made it two straight wins in PSAL 4A play to open…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-69461","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\/69461","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=69461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}