{"id":90570,"date":"2026-01-06T00:57:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T00:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/90570\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T00:57:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T00:57:17","slug":"staten-island-hs-girls-basketball-curtis-flexes-defensive-muscles-in-huge-win-over-stuyvesant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/90570\/","title":{"rendered":"Staten Island HS girls\u2019 basketball: Curtis flexes defensive muscles in huge win over Stuyvesant"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.\u2014 The Curtis Warriors showed no signs of rust in their first PSAL game in 17 days on Monday evening, rolling to a 60\u201310 rout of visiting Stuyvesant to improve their league record to 6\u20132.<\/p>\n

Curtis\u2019 defense was suffocating all night, only allowing a measly four points heading into the final quarter before Stuyvesant cracked double digits. Speaking on the team\u2019s massive defensive effort, head coach Talia Sutton said that \u201cWe truly believe defense wins games. Our offense is going to come\u2014we\u2019re a really young team\u2014but defense has to be constant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as we keep working on ourselves, we\u2019ll get better with each game, each practice, each competition. We\u2019ve really been focusing on our man-to-man defense, worked on it all break, and got a chance to show it today. Hopefully it helps us in future games,\u201d she went on.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1\/11<\/p>\n

Curtis vs. Stuyvesant<\/p>\n

To Sutton\u2019s point, no single Warrior took over offensively, as Curtis leaned on a balanced attack, with three players reaching double figures\u2014Alina Starodubenko (11), Leandra Hamilton (10), and Kathryn Karounos (10)\u2014to share the scoring load.<\/p>\n

Sutton emphasized that the offensive performance against Stuyvesant \u201cwas a group effort that allowed everybody to get a bit of shine,\u201d while singling out Karounos\u2019 two-way play in particular.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s very competitive and can score inside and out, so she\u2019s always a confident scorer when she\u2019s making her shots, which is wonderful for us. She\u2019s also been working on her defense because she wants to be a two-way player, and I\u2019m proud of her,\u201d Sutton said of her freshman guard.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe moved the ball well today, and she got some offensive rebounds and steals, which helped her on the offensive end. When she plays good defense and works hard, her offense is much better, and I\u2019m happy she played as well as she did.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lopsided win should go a long way for the Warriors as they prepare to host Tottenville (5\u20130 in league play) in a big rematch on Tuesday, after the Pirates claimed a 74\u201347 victory in their first meeting. Sutton shared that \u201cwe need the win.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost a tough one to Summit over the break that we didn\u2019t anticipate, but this one should help boost the girls\u2019 morale. We know tomorrow will be tougher\u2014it\u2019s also a chance for redemption. We\u2019re a young team, but the adjustments we\u2019ve worked on over the break should help us this time around. Tottenville is always a rival, and we expect a competitive game,\u201d she shared.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s difficult to nitpick any aspect of a 50-point win, Sutton conceded there are still areas to clean up heading into Tuesday, particularly on the glass and defensively.<\/p>\n

\"CurtisCurtis head coach Talia Sutton talks with guard Leandra Hamilton during a matchup against Stuyvesant on Jan. 5, 2026.Michael O’Brien<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to do better on the offensive boards and improve our off-ball and help defense. We\u2019ll look at it on film, talk about it in timeouts and after the game tomorrow, and focus on getting better,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s highly anticipated rematch between the first and second-place teams in the 4A Staten Island division is set to tip off at Curtis at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.\u2014 The Curtis Warriors showed no signs of rust in their first PSAL game in 17…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-90570","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\/90570","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=90570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}