STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Senior Chris Albano paced a balanced attack with 21 points and Susan Wagner broke open a close game with a big second half as it recorded a 79-49 PSAL 4A Brooklyn-Staten Island II division victory over visiting Curtis Tuesday in Sea View.<\/p>\n
Albano, Wagner\u2019s starting point guard, drained three treys and nailed both of his free-throw attempts en route to eclipsing the 20-point plateau for the sixth time this season. <\/p>\n
The Falcons also received offensive support from Charles Gambino (16 points), Adem Djonbalic (12 points, four treys), Darin Humes-James (11 points) and Clevi Hoxha (nine points). <\/p>\n
The Falcons, who improved to 8-2 overall (3-2 PSAL), sank 12 three-pointers and 13 of 14 free-throw attempts (Humes-James 4 for 4).<\/p>\n
Makhiye Washington, meanwhile, finished with a season-high 25 points and Jayden Faulkner added eight for the Warriors (1-8, 0-6).<\/p>\n
Albano scored 13 first-half points, including each of his three treys, to help give the hosts a 30-25 lead at intermission.<\/p>\n
\u201cCurtis did a really good job of controlling our offense with a 2-3 (halfcourt) zone,\u2019’ said SW head coach Danny Lanigan, whose team was 6 for 22 from behind the arc in the first half. \u201dAnd three of those (six) came from Albano late in the second quarter.\u2019’<\/p>\n
The Falcons got a bit of separation in the third period as Albano scored six more points and Gambino added five to give the hosts a 45-34 advantage going into the final eight minutes.<\/p>\n
SW closed out the game with an explosive 34 fourth-quarter points, including a 10-for-10 effort from the charity stripe.<\/p>\n
The Falcons visit Abraham Lincoln in Brooklyn on Thursday (5 p.m.).<\/p>\n
SIA 55, Friends Seminary 53<\/p>\n
MANHATTAN \u2014 The Tigers put their undefeated season on the line Tuesday as they hit the road and defeated defending ACIS league champion Friends Seminary. <\/p>\n
Both teams came into the game without a loss in league play, and in the back-and-forth nail-biter, SIA was able to pull out the win after making just enough key plays down the stretch. <\/p>\n
Gabe Moschella led the Tigers in scoring with 16 points, while Luke DeVito added all 14 of his markers in the second half. John Elefterakis chipped in with 10, and Mike Belkin contributed two clutch, fourth-quarter three-pointers for his six points.<\/p>\n
A 19-13 Tigers lead after one period expanded to 25-16 in the second quarter before Friends ended the half with a 10-0 run to take a 26-25 lead into the locker room.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just got out of rhythm offensively,\u201d Tigers head coach Mike Mazella lamented. \u201cWe weren\u2019t reversing the ball or running our offense, and too many of our shots during their run were forced or were attempted drives into the heart of a set defense. We paid the price for our poor shot selection and poor ball movement on the offensive end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Friends Seminary\u2019s senior swingman, Jason Chachoua, was heating up, knocking down his second three-pointer right before halftime, and then connecting for two more treys in the third period. Chachoua, who finished with a game-high 25 points, tallied 15 in the second half to keep Friends ahead as the teams battled down the stretch.<\/p>\n
With his team trailing 43-39, the Tigers\u2019 Mike Belkin connected for a right-wing three, and when Chachoua countered with yet another trey, Moschella converted a conventional three-point play to bring the visitors back to within one. Then, with the Owls seemingly on the verge of seizing control and holding a 49-45 lead, Belkin drained another three to bring the Tigers within 49-48 with just under three minutes left. <\/p>\n
Moschella converted off a pretty spin move in the key to give the Tigers their first second-half lead with 2:20 left. Friends, though, would score consecutive baskets to retake a 53-50 lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings weren\u2019t looking good at that point,\u201d Mazella confessed. \u201cMike\u2019s threes were huge, but we were really struggling with their switch to a zone defense. We were having a hard time cracking it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just when things were looking bleak, senior Danny Nowak converted on a strong drive through the key to bring the Tigers within 53-52. DeVito would follow with a fast-break layup off an assist from Elefterakis to give the Tigers a 54-53 lead. A free throw from DeVito rounded out the scoring before the Tigers\u2019 defense got a key stop to thwart the Owls\u2019 tying attempt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was another gut-check win for us,\u201d Mazella praised. \u201cWe don\u2019t always make it easy on ourselves, and we really needed to dig deep to find a way to win this game. I\u2019m not sure we would have won this game last year, but we are older, wiser, and a bit stronger mentally this year. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe received some great contributions from a bunch of different guys, but in crunch time our two senior captains made the final two baskets to help us pull this one out,\u2019’ added the long-time coach. \u201dI\u2019m so proud of them and the whole team. That being said, we have to bounce back now and get ready for the next challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
That next challenge comes up quickly, as the Tigers (7-0 overall, 5-0 ACIS) are back on the road on Wednesday when they travel to Brooklyn to take on St. Ann\u2019s in another ACIS tilt. <\/p>\n
Junior varsity<\/p>\n
St. Peter\u2019s 75, Moore 53<\/p>\n
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Ryan Tuite scored a game-high 20 points and the Eagles built a double-digit halftime lead and never looked back as they registered the CHSAA Staten Island victory over the visiting Mavericks on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Tuite finished with three treys while Mikhial Lopez (16 points), John Greenwald (nine points), Deor Djonbalic (nine points) and Gavin McGinley (eight points, two treys) also contributed offensively for St. Peter\u2019s (2-2 overall, 2-1 CHSAASI).<\/p>\n
Sharif McCrimon and Dillon Legakis paced Moore with 11 points apiece.<\/p>\n
After Greenwald\u2019s six first-quarter points helped give SP a 16-12 advantage at quarter\u2019s end, Lopez and Tuite teamed for 14 markers in the second as the Eagles took a 37-26 lead into the lockers.<\/p>\n
SP then exploded for 27 third-quarter points behind Tuite (10 points), McGinley and Djonbalic (five points apiece) as the advantage ballooned to 64-37.<\/p>\n
Friends Seminary 79, SIA 70<\/p>\n
MANHATTAN \u2014 The Tigers fell to 2-3 on the season (2-2 in the ACIS) with the loss to the host Owls. <\/p>\n
The Tigers were led in scoring by Rob Esposito, who poured in 32 points, including three three-pointers. <\/p>\n
SIA, in fact, would connect for nine treys during the game, a total, however, that was matched by Friends. But while the Tigers converted six of their treys in the first half, the hosts connected for six of their own in the pivotal fourth quarter to pull out the victory.<\/p>\n
Three other Tigers reached double figures, as Josiah Wheatley-Harewood connected for 13, Patrick Sheehan scored 11 and Nate Wildrick added 10. <\/p>\n
The Tigers are back in action Wednesday when they travel to Brooklyn to take on St. Ann\u2019s in another ACIS contest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Senior Chris Albano paced a balanced attack with 21 points and Susan Wagner broke…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-73467","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\/73467","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=73467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}