Sports

Former Brooklyn Collegiate star Cropper to play next year at Truman

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – Emonni Cropper had every intention of playing next year at Brooklyn Collegiate. Even though the star guard moved to The Bronx in January and was making a more-than-two-hour commute from there to Brooklyn every day, she was ready to stick it out for her senior year.

Brooklyn Collegiate coach Dytanya Mixson would have none of it.

“I knew the best thing for her was for her to transfer,” Mixson told The Post. “I told her, me and you we go beyond basketball. This is about your career and getting the best education you’re going to get. I didn’t want to lose her. That’s [like] my daughter. But at the same time you gotta do what’s best for the kid.”

Mixson and Cropper both felt that the best destination for her would be Truman. She started taking classes at the Bronx school, just a 40-minute commute from her new home, in the spring and is expected to be eligible to play next season due to a travel hardship transfer. Mixson was instrumental every step of the way even though Cropper was by far his best player and Truman is a PSAL rival.

“You have to give fantastic credit to ‘D,’” Truman coach John Burke said. “He made a conscious effort that was right for her.”

Cropper’s grades began to suffer due to the commute. She’d get to Brooklyn Collegiate late and get home from practice in the winter with little time to do homework before she had to do it all again.

“It was just too much,” said Cropper, the younger sister of Thomas Jefferson grad Alicia Cropper, who now plays at Providence.

Since being at Truman, Burke says, she has worked hard, taking extra classes to make up for those trying months in Brooklyn. Recently, Cropper found out she passed Regents in both math and English.

“She has been off the charts academically,” Burke said.

On the court, Cropper has been playing this travel season with the CAS Douglass Panthers, who competed this week at the Blue Chip USA Invitational at Penn State. She’s been the team’s leading scorer thus far and has interest from schools like James Madison and Quinnipiac, among others.

Though she was the undisputed standout at Brooklyn Collegiate, Cropper will be sharing the scoring load this coming winter with Truman star Krystal Pearson, who is blowing up this summer with the Gauchos. The pair has competed together in the past with Douglass and Cropper is looking forward to the new dynamic tandem.

“It’s kind of easier now,” Cropper said. “I’ve got people who can play with me. I don’t have to do everything by myself.”

Cropper missed a good portion of the season out with a knee injury, but says she is healed up now. The only thing that stood in her way when she came back at the end of the year, she said, was the fear that she would hurt it again. Now she can’t wait to start the season with Truman, predicting a deep run in the playoffs for a Mustangs program that has yet to reach the quarterfinals under Burke.

“One of the first things that came to my mind is I’ll be a much better coach next year than I was before,” Burke joked.

Mixson will be without his star player, but he still plans on moving up from the PSAL ‘A’ to the top-tier ‘AA.’ He just wants to ensure he doesn’t have to coach against someone he calls like his own child.

“I’m gonna make sure every tournament that we don’t play Truman,” Mixson said. “I don’t want to play against Emonni until the playoffs. It’s going to be an emotional event.”

He paused before adding with a laugh: “But I know how to shut her down.”

mraimondi@nypost.com