Gompers guard Carlos Galan scored a game-high 33 points. (Damion Reid)
Ede Egharevba blew past his defender at the top of the key and took off from the middle of the paint for an empathic one-handed slam. The play, with a minute left in the game, put an exclamation point on the Thomas Edison senior forward’s fantastic fourth quarter.
“I just wanted to show teams that we are still here,” Egharevba said.
He scored 16 of his 29 points in the final frame, connected on five 3-pointers and grabbed seven rebounds to lead Edison to a 74-58 win over Samuel Gompers at the Queens Jam Christmas Classic at John Bowne HS Saturday night. The win snapped a four-game losing streak for the Inventors.
“I wanted to end the year with a win because we have been losing,” Egharevba said. “Our momentum was kind of down. With this game under our belt, we have our momentum back. We can be a good team. Like how we were before.”
They played without head coach John Ulmer, who was on a planned vacation upstate with his family, according to assistant coach Rob Moses, who took over in his absence. Ulmer had ripped into his team following at loss to Wadleigh on Dec 19 for its heart, dedication and focus.
“We were expecting that. We were losing and we are not supposed to lose,” said senior forward Josh Gray, who had a vicious one-handed slam over Gompers forward Tevin Mitchell in the first quarter.
Egharevba made sure that didn’t happen again in this calendar year. He scored nine points, on two 3-pointers and a conventional 3-point play, during an 11-0 run that opened up a 67-50 lead with 3:10 left in the game. He also opened the quarter with a 3-pointer.
“I just felt like every shot I was going to take was going to fall, so I kept shooting it,” he said. “It was dropping.”
Freshman guard Carlos Galan shot Gompers of Bronx AA back into the game in the third quarter. He connected on three of his seven 3-pointers in the stanza and scored a game-high 33 points. A Jason Henry jumper got the Panthers even at 34 with 5:09 left in the third. Edison (5-5) switched to a man to man defense at that point. Galan, who also banked in a running 3-pointer to beat the halftime buzzer, kept firing up treys in the fourth, but could not find the range.
“His confidence is way above a freshman,” Gompers coach Ned Jackson said. “The kids support him. He is just a worker. He never stops working. He has all the physical skills.”
The Panthers front line of Henry, Mitchell, and Mouctar Toure, all 6-foot-6 or bigger, could not find a comfort level against the athletic and skilled Inventors big men. Josh Gray scored 15 points and Stephen Nwaukoni had 13 points and nine boards for Edison. Henry added nine points for Gompers (6-6).
“They were like thoroughbreds and we were like race horses,” Jackson said.
Edison was physical in the paint from the start, harassed Gompers guards to get out on the break and put in second effort when needed. There was no second-guessing their heart after this one.
“They are tired of losing,” Moses said. “We lost four straight games and they wanted this from tipoff.”