Crusaders Knock Off Top 5 Opponent
BRONX, NY -The Long Island Crusaders are currently ranked as our number 1 team on Long Island and is also ranked inside the top 15 nationally.On Tuesday,, they took on an Imhotep Charter who is ranked as high as number 4 in some rankings plus supports a 26-game winning streak. They played the final game of Day 1 of the Jordan Holiday Classic which took place in front of a packed crowd inside the Gauchos Gym.
In the first quarter the Crusaders jumped out to an early 21-13 lead. LuHi’s 6’5 CG VJ Edgecombe ‘24 finished a beautiful and1 and then 6’8” SG Jayden Ross ‘23 answered an IC bucket with a 5-0 personal run. The UConn commit looked sharp in the first showing his ability to knock down jumpers, cut to basket to finish and draw fouls. Edgecombe finished with 9 points for the quarter and was going to toe to toe with 6’8” SF Justin Edwards (Imhotep ’23) who will be playing at Kentucky next year. While the quarter was getting close to ending Edgecombe got a pass up court on the wing and absolutely posterized Edwards causing the crowd including Carmelo Anthony to erupt.
In the second quarter though IC and Edwards got cooking as they outscored LuHi 15-9. Edwards was able to find some offense plus his running mate 6” G Rahmir Barno ‘23 a Florida Golf Coast University commit got started as well. Ross was held scoreless; Edgecombe was held to just two points and the Crusaders began to cool off. LuHi had to lean on 6’9” F Godswill Eheriene ‘24 who had his best stretch of the night stringing together a few tough buckets to keep their lead.
Ross was able to drill a three, Erheriene finished a nice basket inside and the Crusaders nailed another three. Imhotep punched back with baskets from Barno and Edwards, but Edgecombe took over. He got hot finishing through multiple defenders, cutting to the basket and showing his speed in the open court. His athleticism is off the charts like we said in our first evaluation, and it was on full display again tonight. Edgecombe connected on multiple big threes in the corner as well just showing he could really do it all.
Even with the Crusaders and Edgecombe slowing down a bit in the fourth they got enough offense from the team to keep IC and Edwards away. They completed the 66-55 upset which is hard for us to even consider them as underdogs with their amount of talent but it was the case. A top 5 ranking and 26 game win streak doesn’t happen often with a premier schedule so hats off to IC. However, this was the Crusaders night especially for the coaching staff who was sensational from the tip.
Edgecombe was the star of the night, finishing with 24 points, the MVP selection, and the play of the day. Ross was great as well, adding 14 while Erheriene upped his stock chipping in 10 points with a bunch of rebounds. Edwards had 17 points including some nice highlights and Barno added 15.