BROOKLYN, N.Y. \u2014 Staten Island Academy ran its record to 11-0 this season with a 51-48 comeback victory over host Packer Collegiate on Tuesday. <\/p>\n
Senior guard Danny Nowak led the Tigers\u2019 attack with 21 points, while Gabe Moschella and Luke DeVito added 10 and eight, respectively. <\/p>\n
The win keeps SIA atop the ACIS standings with a 7-0 record.<\/p>\n
After scoring the game\u2019s first basket, the Tigers were hit with an 11-0 Packer run, highlighted by three long-range treys by the Pelicans. The visitors, though, would settle down and tie the game at 14 behind DeVito\u2019s six markers and four from Nowak. <\/p>\n
Packer, though, would have the better of play in the second period, as the hosts started punishing the Tigers in the paint and taking advantage of the Tigers\u2019 shoddy defensive transition.<\/p>\n
\u201cOffensively, we struggled for most of the game,\u201d SIA head coach Mike Mazella observed. \u201cWe had too many possessions where we were stagnant and ended up settling for contested shots and drives into the teeth of a set defense. Then, to make matters worse, we didn\u2019t crash the offensive boards or get back on defense, and a team like Packer is going to make you pay for playing that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Up 33-26 at the half, the Pelicans saw their lead balloon to double digits in the third quarter. A 6-0 personal run from Moschella, however, cut into Packer\u2019s lead, and then, with his team trailing 46-36 with seconds left in the third quarter, Nowak drained a corner three to trim the Tigers\u2019 deficit to 46-39 entering the final quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cDanny\u2019s three was a big shot for us and gave us some momentum heading into the last period,\u2019’ said Mazella. \u201dAnd then in that last period, he lifted his level of play even further.\u201d <\/p>\n
In the fourth quarter, Nowak first converted a drive off a Lorenzo Malpeso assist and moments later, he converted a three-point play to bring the Tigers within 46-44. After a Pelican basket in the paint, Nowak drove and kicked to Johnny Elefterakis for a huge corner trey that cut Packer\u2019s lead to 48-47. <\/p>\n
Nowak then connected on a strong drive to give the Tigers their first lead since the game\u2019s opening basket. After an SIA stop, Elefterakis rose to the occasion again by hitting a floater in the lane to close the scoring with just over a minute left.<\/p>\n
\u201cJohnny never lacks for confidence,\u201d Mazella noted, \u201cand he didn\u2019t hesitate taking those two shots at the most critical juncture of the game. He came up big for us in that fourth quarter.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to the clutch plays on the offensive end, the Tigers were helped in their comeback by some cold shooting by Packer over the final eight minutes. The hosts, in fact, scored only two points in the quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to think our defense had something to do with that,\u201d offered Mazella, \u201cbut I\u2019m not sure that is the case. We really played with fire in this game, and it seemed like we had to hit the reset button a couple of times in the game. Packer played harder and smarter than we did for most of the game, and they probably beat us in every statistical category. But we managed to just hang around and stay close. Down the stretch, we made some key plays and did what we had to do to grind out a hard-fought win.\u201d<\/p>\n
A win that keeps SIA undefeated on the season and helps them get off to a good start in the new year. The Tigers next play on Saturday when they host CSI\/McCown in a non-league match-up.<\/p>\n
Susan Wagner 76, Brooklyn Collegiate 62<\/p>\n
BROOKLYN, N.Y. \u2014 Senior Chris Albano poured in 32 points and the Falcons grabbed the lead early en route to the PSAL 4A division victory over the host Lions on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Albano reached his total with the benefit of just one three-pointer as he buried 17 of 22 free-throw attempts, including 9 of 10 in the second half.<\/p>\n
Darin Humes-James (14 points, two treys), Charles Gambino (11 points) and Clevi Hoxha (10 points) also contributed offensively for the Falcons, who improved to 12-4 overall (5-2 league).<\/p>\n
Naiem Manson paced Brooklyn Collegiate with 23 points, including six treys. The Lions dropped to 6-5 overall (2-4 PSAL).<\/p>\n
SW head coach Danny Lanigan said defense dictated his team\u2019s latest victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a quality road win in one of the harder places to play,\u2019’ said Lanigan, whose team connected on 27 of 39 free-throw attempts overall. \u201dWe were really solid defensively against a physical team. Our ball pressure forced a lot of turnovers and our guys just had a great commitment to defending and rebounding and we knew that would be crucial if we were going to be successful tonight.\u2019’<\/p>\n
The Falcons owned a 20-16 lead at the end of the first quarter when Albano began making frequent trips to the charity stripe. The three-year varsity player scored 14 points in the second, including eight free throws, as the visitor\u2019s lead ballooned to 38-28 at intermission.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Albano) was tremendous,\u2019’ said Lanigan. \u201dAnd he finished with 32 despite being face-guarded with (the big) bodies they have and all the double-teaming he had to face.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just a special player.\u2019’<\/p>\n
With Albano and Hoxha teaming for 12 points in the third period, Wagner entered the final quarter with a 58-49 advantage.<\/p>\n
The Lions were still only down eight midway through the final period when Hoxha, who is averaging 14.5 ppg. in Wagner\u2019s last four games, buried a back-breaking trey to help put the game away.<\/p>\n
The Falcons drained 11 of 13 freebies during the final eight minutes.<\/p>\n
Lanigan, meanwhile, also credited Gambino (11), Hoxha (10) and Adem Djonbalic (nine) for doing a solid job on the backboards.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust a great team commitment to getting after the ball,\u2019’ said Lanigan, who also praised Humes-James for keeping up his intensity level despite playing in foul trouble.<\/p>\n
JUNIOR VARSITY<\/p>\n
Packer Collegiate 57, SIA 40<\/p>\n
BROOKLYN, N.Y. \u2014 The Tigers fell to 3-4 (3-3 ACIS) with the loss to the undefeated Pelicans. <\/p>\n
SIA was led in scoring by Rob Esposito\u2019s 13 markers. Patrick Sheehan chipped in with nine and Josiah Wheatley-Harewood added eight.<\/p>\n
Teddy Liodakis provided solid defense and rebounding for SIA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BROOKLYN, N.Y. \u2014 Staten Island Academy ran its record to 11-0 this season with a 51-48 comeback victory…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-92417","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\/92417","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=92417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}