St. John's Edge Greatest Hits
A good club culture, firm fan support and plenty of wins - all things a professional basketball team needs to succeed and the St. John's Edge had all of them.
After two successful seasons in the NBL Canada, with a bright future ahead of them, it suddenly all came to a crashing halt for the Newfoundland franchise. After negotiations between the Edge's ownership group and St. John's Sports and Entertainment collapsed, resulting with the their lease agreement on the Mile One Centre being brought to a premature end. It is a sad and underserving end to a team that provided plenty of memories in their short life.
The Edge management had big ambitions for the team from the very beginning, ahead of their inaugural season in 2017 they signed two-time All-Canadian Alex Johnson as well as Canadian internationals Grandy Glaze and Carl English. The latter got the team off to a dramatic start in their first regular season game, making the shot which saw them victorious by a single point.
It was the be the first of many wins for the Edge, who gained many fans fast en route to finishing with the third-best win record in the league and made it to the Central Division semi finals. On the way, on March 3rd 2018, the Mile One Center was host to the most remarkable individual showing in NBLC history. English was once again the one in the spotlight, scoring the most points ever by an individual player in league history, a performance which contributed to him winning the MVP award that year.
English was not the only one making a splash for the fledgling franchise: Charles Hinkle was one of the most consistent players, being among the highest scorers and rebounders for the Edge; Ryan Reid was a dominant presence on defence and with 10.8 points and 6.1 rebounds per game Desmond Lee showed early signs of the star player he would soon become.
Things were looking good for St. John's in their second season, where they increased their firepower with some of the biggest-name signings in NBLC history. One of Asia's most high-profile players, 7'2" centre Indian Satnam Singh, joined alongside 2008 NBA champion Glen Davis.
Despite this increase in firepower the team saw a rough start to the 2018-19 regular season, beginning with a 6-1 losing run. They quickly turned that around and went undefeated in their next six games and became so strong on offence they made up for gaps in their game plan through sheer relentless scoring. It was no surprise they finished the season as the highest-scoring NBLC team.
With their big-name players backed up by the likes of Maurice Jones and Junior Cadougan, following a rocky post-season they reached their first NBLC finals. Unfortunately they were unable to capture the title against a dominant Moncton Magic side, who became the first champions to sweep the finals series.
In what was to be their final season, the Edge did not bring the same big name players of the previous year. Cadougan, All-NBLC second team and winner of the Most Improved Player award last time out, stayed and was joined by league mainstay Tyrone Watson as well as a newly-assembled roster of up-and-coming talent. It looked to be the first steps towards building a dynasty around these players.
This new outfit showed great mental toughness and confident basketball skill to turn around a disappointing start to the season to finish with a winning record and pull off two memorable victories in 2020. First turning back a seventeen-point deficit against the Halifax Hurricanes by the scoring combination of Cane Broome and Karrington Ward in the final quarter, which saw them victorious by a single point. More impressive was when they outlasted a dogged Sudbury Five on their home court and in double overtime.
At the season's premature end, top scorer Junior Cadougan won his second All-NBLC selection, as did Montay Brandon having averaged a double-double of 11.7 points and 11.6 rebounds, one of eight Edge players whose scoring average was in double digits.
Things were looking up for the St. John's Edge before events in the long NBLC hiatus took a turn for the worse for the team proudly flying the flag for NL basketball since its inception. Though a new St. John's franchise is said to be on the horizon, the Edge will be sorely missed and the NBL Canada will not be the same without them.
Picture Credit: Jeremy Eaton
