Holy Trinity boys baksetball's full-court pressure too much for St. Anthony's

Holy Trinity was down three to St. Anthony’s coming out of halftime on this final night of the regular season, and seeding for the Titans in the NSCHSAA tournament was at stake. So they unleashed their full-court pressure in their home gym and the game wasn’t the same.

“We just love defense and we like to play that,” said Jagger Verzosa, who was at the forefront of causing havoc in the third quarter. “That’s really where our identity forms because defensively, when we get a stop, we come on offense and that’s how we’re scoring a lot.”

The Titans scored 20 of the 24 points in the period and forced eight turnovers in those eight minutes Tuesday en route to a 54-37 victory.

 Senior forward Tristan Thomas scored 17 and Verzosa, the senior point guard, contributed seven of his 10 in the third on senior night,  helping this basketball team finish its regular schedule at an eye-catching 20-4 overall and 9-3 in the league.

“If you told me I’d have 20 wins at the beginning of the season, I would say, ‘How?’ ” coach Steve Gnus said. “Really good season. Consistent. As a coach, you dwell on the losses sometimes. Now I’m taking a look back here and saying, ‘Twenty wins and only four losses is pretty good.”

They earned the second seed via a tiebreaker, behind No. 1 Chaminade and ahead of No. 3 St. Mary’s. That means the Titans get a bye straight into the semis next Tuesday at Adelphi.

“I like our chances,” said Thomas, who has verbally committed to Molloy. " . . . We started off the season great and we ended up the season great. We’ve just got to stick to what we do.”

St. Anthony’s is 13-10 overall and 6-6 in the NSCHSAA. The defending state CHSAA Class A champion Friars own the fifth seed and will play their opening-round game at No. 4 St. Dominic Saturday night.

They’re 2-4 since 2025 All-Long Island guard Kevin Moore left to begin his studies and football training at Delaware.

“They’ve dealt with losing maybe one of the best players in the league to go to college early,” coach Sal Lagano said. “They’ve been battling every game. They’ve thrown sickness, injuries at these kids, and they’ve competed every night. We didn’t do it as well tonight.”

They led 21-18 at halftime and 23-20 after Kahmel Wilmot, who led them with eight points, scored in the lane.

Then Thomas made a layup to launch a 9-0 burst. Verzosa had a three-point play off a turnover and another layup after another turnover.

It was 38-25 after three, and the margin swelled to 22 from there.

Verzosa summed up his senior night in three words: “Tremendous, tremendous satisfaction.”