The St. John’s Edge welcomed a new player Monday and said goodbye to a member of the team’s first-ever starting lineup.
The National Basketball League of Canada team announced it has signed point guard Coron Williams, who five seasons of Division One basketball in the NCAA with the Robert Morris Colonials and Wake Forest Demon Deacons.
To make room on their 12-man roster, the Edge (11-5) released point guard Rashaun Broadus.
A 28-year-old native of Midlothian, Va., Williams has three years of experience in the G League, the NBA’s development circuit, including two with the Maine Red Claws, where St. John’s assistant coach Steve Marcus once worked in basketball operations.
In 99 G League games, the 6-1, 175-pound Williams averaged just over six points per outing.
Broadus had been one of the Edge’s first announced signings and had been a regular member of the team’s starting lineup until this past week. He missed Wednesday’s game against the Windsor Express with an injury, but returned to the lineup for Friday and Saturday matchups against the KW-Titans. In those games, Broadus came off the bench while Desmond Lee started.
Lee averaged 18 points and eight rebounds per game in St. John’s recent four-game home stand.
Broadus averaged 9.8 ppg, two rebounds and nearly four assists in 15 games with St. John’s.
Williams becomes the 18th player to be on the Edge's roster this season.
Like Broadus, Marcus Lewis, Rudolpe Joly and Zach Gordon were eleased, while Jordan Jensen-Whyte and Colton Ray are on injured reserve
Williams will be in the lineup Tuesday as the Edge open a five-game road trip with a school-day (12:30 p. m. NT) game against the Titans in Kitchener, Ont.
They’ll likely need him to play some significant minutes right away, especially with star guard Carl English having remained behind in St. John’s with a fractured nose and concussion-like symptoms.
As of Monday evening, there was no word on whether English would be rejoining the team sometime during the busy road trip, which has the Edge — who sit second overall in the 10-team NBLC — playing five games in six days in Southern Ontario.
