Long Island Lutheran boys basketball's Kiyan Anthony bruised in season-opening rout of St. Joseph's Collegiate

Kiyan Anthony soared to dunk early in the fourth quarter for Long Island Lutheran, but the state’s top-rated high school boys basketball player in the Class of 2025 met resistance from Nate Blenman in the air up there.

“Kiyan took off like a pro that he is,” St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute coach Cooper Calzonetti said. “When you’re in the air like that, it’s crazy. I know Nate didn’t mean to do anything.”

Anthony stuffed the ball through the net. And he got fouled. The Syracuse-bound shooting guard with the NBA genes landed very hard. He had to be carried off for further examination.

“I don’t think anything was intentional from the kid, but he kind of undercut me and I fell on my back,” Anthony said. “. . . Being in the air and realizing you don’t have your feet under you is always a scary feeling. It happened to me before. I would say this is the worst it [has] happened.”

LuHi opened its season with national championship hopes Saturday, rolling to a 74-35 victory over the visitors from Buffalo. Anthony scored 16, Dylan Mingo added 14 and brother Kayden Mingo contributed 12 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and five steals for the country’s second-ranked team by ESPN.

But the best news for the Crusaders was that Anthony didn’t appear to be seriously injured in that crash against the floor. Still, the 6-5 son of former NBA great Carmelo Anthony wasn’t feeling fine.

Kiyan spoke about three areas of discomfort — tailbone, hamstring and “lower back is super tight right now.” Yet he felt he would only miss a few days.

“I’m in a little bit of pain right now, but I should be all good,” he said.

Coach John Buck indicated the fall was more on the tailbone. He called the injury “a bruise.”

“It’ll take some time,” Buck said. “I’m sure it’ll be sore, but we’ll get him some treatment. It doesn’t look like anything major.”

LuHi went to the national quarterfinals the past two seasons. Buck laid out his 2024-25 goals in the preseason — win every game in the regular season, then win the national tournament.

“We’ve got to come along in terms of toughness in the paint,” said Buck, who has players who stand 7-1, 6-11, 6-9 (two of them) and 6-8 (two of them). “I think once we get that matched up with some of our perimeter defense, we have a shot.”

They didn’t shoot particularly well from the perimeter, especially in the first half. But they displayed their ability to get to the basket, excel in transition and willingness to play defense, really good defense.

“I think we have great defenders,” Buck said.

The Marauders, who were paced by Jay’Meir Goosby’s nine points, shot 5-for-24 and made nine turnovers in the first half.

The Crusaders jumped out to 14-5 lead after one quarter. They extended it to 30-15 at the break.

Kayden Mingo scored five in a 10-0 burst to start the third. Anthony nailed a corner three to make it 40-15.

“They’re nowhere near where they’re going to be at the end of the year,” Calzonetti said. “They’ve got a lot of talent. John does a hell of a job.”

And they have Anthony able to freely show his talent. There’s no college decision weighing on him. That announcement came on Nov. 15.

“I think now I can lock in in the gym or with my team [as] opposed to having outside pressure with the college decision,” Anthony said. “I got it out of the way early before the season, so now I can just lock in and be ready to win.”