![\"MSIT](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6VQNMRPFRZHBBLLHOCKL64WCEY.JPG\")
McKee\/Staten Island Tech’s Eva Paraskevadis takes the ball up the floor during a matchup against Petrides on Dec. 16, 2025.Michael O’Brien<\/p>\nSTATEN ISLAND, N.Y.\u2014 In a matchup between two teams that entered Tuesday night a perfect 5\u20130, the visiting McKee\/Staten Island Tech Seagulls edged Petrides 37\u201334, securing a razor-thin victory and emerging as the final unbeaten team in the PSAL 3A Brooklyn\/Staten Island division.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew it was going to be a close game. Petrides plays extremely tough defense; they worked really hard, but we came out with the win because we made a couple more stops in the fourth quarter, and that was huge,\u201d MSIT head coach Peter LaMarca said after the contest.<\/p>\n
To his point, the Seagulls trailed for most of the game before finally grabbing their first significant lead, 31\u201328, in the fourth quarter. They stayed within striking distance throughout and refused to fold, making their decisive move in the final frame.<\/p>\n
When asked how he kept his team believing, LaMarca shared, \u201cThe message on the bench was that you guys worked your butts off all year for this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the first half, I don\u2019t think they were answering the call. In the second half, though, they really did. They\u2019re like the cardiac kids \u2014 they make me lose my voice every game \u2014 but they answered the call,” LaMarca added with a grin.<\/p>\n
McKee\/Staten Island Tech’s Eva Paraskevadis takes the ball up the floor during a matchup against Petrides on Dec. 16, 2025.Michael O’Brien<\/p>\n
One key catalyst for the Seagulls\u2019 fourth-quarter surge was senior guard Eva Paraskevadis, who drilled a huge trio of treys and finished as LaMarca\u2019s leading scorer on the night with 16 points.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday they were falling for her; it was nice to see,\u201d LaMarca said of his senior leader.<\/p>\n
Also playing a pivotal role in the win was forward Thalia Treasure. Despite scoring just five points, the MSIT senior dominated the glass all game long, hauling in an impressive 11 rebounds\u2014more than all other Seagulls combined\u2014and providing LaMarca\u2019s crew with a much-needed physical edge.<\/p>\n
While the Seagulls\u2019 offense was up and down throughout the evening, their defense was outstanding, highlighted by holding the Panthers\u2019 offensive leader, Asha Bell\u2014who poured in a whopping 41 points in her previous outing against Sunset Park\u2014to just 15 on the night.<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s one area LaMarca wants his team to clean up moving forward, it\u2019s execution during inbounding plays, as the Seagulls nearly turned the ball over and allowed multiple potential game-tying baskets late.<\/p>\n
![\"MSIT](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/JQKC46TZKNF5BAB57W4JJRWLCE.JPG\")
McKee\/Staten Island Tech’s Madisyn Chen handles the ball during a matchup against Petrides on Dec. 16, 2025.Michael O’Brien<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to talk about that in practice,\u201d LaMarca affirmed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a game tomorrow, and we\u2019ll definitely be discussing it then. What\u2019s funny is we had an inbounds play to win the game against Lincoln, but today, you\u2019ve got to give credit to Petrides. They did a really good job on defense denying us the ball. We\u2019ll take a look at that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Now sitting at an unblemished 6-0 with one of the thinnest benches on Staten Island, LaMarca was asked if he expected his team to still be undefeated at this point in the season before it started.<\/p>\n
His answer?<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely not,\u201d he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I wanted was competitive basketball. I always tell them to play hard, play smart, and play tough, and they\u2019ve definitely been doing it; it\u2019s been nice to see,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n
![\"MSIT](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/5VBZGBG3YVB4DNFPC2KJ45FUJU.JPG\")
McKee\/Staten Island Tech head coach Peter LaMarca addresses his team during a timeout in the midst of a matchup between MSIT and Petrides on Dec. 16, 2025.Michael O’Brien<\/p>\n
The Seagulls will look to roll onto 7\u20130 when they face Port Richmond on Wednesday, while the Panthers will aim to return to winning ways in their own matchup against the Raiders on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.\u2014 In a matchup between two teams that entered Tuesday night a perfect 5\u20130, the visiting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-72843","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\/72843","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=72843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}