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Published:St. Peters, Tottenville advance to SIHSL Tournament championship
Lam nets 30 points to power Pirates to 62-60 OT win; Eagles' defense keys 53-31 triumph
On St. Valentine’s Day, Tottenville broke the heart of Susan Wagner.
The third-seeded Pirates rallied from an early 13-point deficit, came back from a five-point hole with 1:15 left in regulation and won their Borough President Vito Fossella SIHSL Tournament semifinal 62-60 on a Nick Lam three-point play with 4.3 seconds remaining in overtime.
The victory over the No. 2 seed sends Tottenville into the SIHSL Tournament final for the first time since 2005. In Thursday’s championship at the College of Staten Island in Willowbrook, the Pirates will face top-seeded St. Peter’s. The Eagles will be looking to capture their sixth straight tourney title after coasting to a 53-31 triumph over No. 4 St. Joseph by-the-Sea.
Tottenville 62, Susan Wagner 60 (OT)
Wagner, a PSAL AAAA squad, jumped out to a 19-6 lead 1:11 into the second quarter before the AAA Pirates began to chip away. Lam tallied seven of his game-high 30 points in the period as Tottenville closed to within 23-21 at the half.
“We got here (at Petrides HS in Sunnyside) over two hours early, at 3:15 for a 5:30 tip-off,” said Lam. “We couldn’t go on the gym; we had to wait in the hallway. But it showed we cared. [Wagner] came walking in, looking past us, already thinking about St. Peter’s.
“I give a lot of credit to our center [Erjon Rexhaj]. He hit some shots from outside, which cleared out the area underneath the basket. After halftime, it was a crazy roller coaster.”
The Falcons had a 35-28 advantage in the third quarter and a 51-46 edge with 1:15 to go in the fourth after a trey from Arlind Lata. But a Lam drive and a Joe Gioeni 3-pointer from the right corner deadlocked matters at 51-all with 28 seconds left.
“Time was running down and I had to shoot it. I didn’t think it was going in,” admitted Gioeni, who made three treys, all in the second half. “When it did, I just said, ‘Thank God.'”
The Falcons still had a chance to win in regulation, but put-back attempts by Lata and Mekhi Jackson (team-high 17 points) in the closing seconds were off the mark, triggering overtime.
There were six lead changes and one tie in the OT alone, as Wagner took its final lead on a Jackson drive with 21 seconds to go. After a timeout, Lam took the ball and dribbled up the middle before kicking it out to Zach Belton. The shot missed, but Lam tapped the carom in and drew contact for a foul. He sank the free throw for a 62-60 advantage.
“It was a great sequence,” said Lam, who watched Wagner’s last chance fall well short at the buzzer. “I’ll never forget it for the rest of my life.”
“We have 11 seniors who have been with this program since they were freshmen. They stopped listening to me about a month ago,” quipped Tottenville head coach Kevin Alesi. “Everyone in this room expected to win. No one in a purple jersey expected to lose.”
St. Peter’s 53, St. Joseph by-the-Sea 31
After a tight start, the Eagles used a stifling defense and a 12-2 run to close out the first half, capped by Mike Spisto’s trey and his layup (the latter off a steal by Saliou Diokhane).
Spisto finished with a game-high 12 points while Qadir Martin added 10 and was an intimidating presence in the paint, as St. Peter’s swept the season series, 3-0.
“Mike [Cortese, Sea head coach] does a great job getting his guys motivated. They play very physical basketball,” said SP head coach Ryan Woods. “But I wasn’t thinking about the two games before this [against Sea]; I was thinking about this semifinal game, and thinking of getting to the championship.”
As for Martin: “He did an unbelievable job. He’s such a force,” said Woods. “He altered shots, forced kick-outs. He impacts the game. He’s the reigning Jaques [Award, emblematic of the best player on Staten Island] winner for a reason.”
Woods, himself a former Jaques recipient for the Eagles, said the Vikings “had burned us in the previous meetings on backdoor baskets. But we played solid and disciplined defense. I was proud of the effort.”
Matt Stolfo paced the Vikes with seven points.