The highly sought after #2 recruit in the country, Anthony Edwards, put on a show in Georgia basketball’s home opener, a 91-72 Tuesday night victory over Western Carolina University.
Head coach Tom Crean won the recruiting battle for Edwards, the 6’5″ 215lb shooting guard out of Holy Spirit Prep in Atlanta, making him the highest recruited player the Dawgs have ever landed.
Edwards finished Tuesday’s game with 24 points, 3 assists, 9 rebounds and 4 steals. He shot 7/16 FG (43.8%), 4/7 3PT (57.1%) and 6/8 FT (75%) and put up the most points by a Georgia freshman in their debut since Dominique Wilkins’ 26 points against Troy.
Watch Edwards’ game 1 highlights:
Edwards struggled to start, going 1/6 shooting, but the new three-point line in college basketball didn’t phase the Ant-Man, who eventually found his rhythm from deep.
Western Carolina made it a close contest for the majority of the game, until Edwards and the Bulldogs pulled away late in the 4th. Edwards hit a trio of big 3-pointers down the stretch to pull away from a scrappy WCU team and secure the Dawgs’ first win of the season.
Edwards fouled out of the game with 2:10 to go, but received a standing ovation for his performance before leaving the court.
Edwards, in his post game interview, talked about how much anticipation there was and how excited him and his teammates were for this game.
“I mean all the work we put in this summer, we’ve been waiting for this moment. We came out here and told each other in the locker room: this is what this summer was for, this is what we’ve been working for. I was just happy as I could be to see my teammates go out there, drive and be the best the can be.”
My mental approach was just to go out there and have fun, play your game, don’t try and force nothing let it come to you and just try and find your teammates and make my teammates the the best they can when we’re on the court together.”
There’s high hopes for Bulldog basketball this season with #5 on the court.
