Unselfish Long Island Lutheran extends winning streak to 14 games
MJ Madison of Long Island Lutheran drives to the basket against Oak Hill Academy during the Bob McKillop Invitational tournament on Friday at Long Island Lutheran. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
After the Long Island Lutheran boys basketball team coasted to a 76-41 home win over Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Virginia) on Friday night, coach John Buck recalled a quote that the late Skip Prosser, his coach at Wake Forest, once showed his team: “It’s amazing what can be accomplished when no one cares who gets the credit.”
Buck wrote those 14 words on the whiteboard in the locker room after LuHi’s 14th straight victory.
“In this world where I think everyone is trying to fight for their own identity and their own brand, it’s hard to kind of think backwards and trust being part of something big and winning through that,” Buck said. “But these guys have done it. I mean, we got guys who have sacrificed minutes, shots, all those different things to be part of a team that I think can play and beat anyone in the country.
“I’m not saying we’re the best in the country — I’m just saying this team can play and beat anyone in the country right now because they’re so together, they’re so talented, and I’m having a blast coaching them.”
The Crusaders (17-5, 6-4 Nike EYBL Scholastic), ranked No. 6 nationally in the ESPN SCNext Top 25, led wire-to-wire against 24th-ranked Oak Hill (19-7, 3-5) in the Bob McKillop Invitational.
Oak Hill did not score until 2:26 remained in the first quarter. LuHi led by at least 20 points for the final 19:08 and by as many as 37 with 2:33 remaining.
“The downfall of a lot of teams is maybe selfishness,” said junior forward MJ Madison, who had five dunks and 14 points. “We’ve bought into the fact that everybody plays their role and everybody does what they do best.”
Junior guard Dylan Mingo and senior guard Kiyan Anthony each scored 15 points. Nico Onyekwere, a 7-1 senior center, had 12 points and 11 rebounds.
“Nico Onyekwere is playing like one of the best big men in the country right now,” Buck said.
Onyekwere, a Florida State signee, grew up in Nigeria and spent the last two years playing basketball in Europe. He arrived in the United States last September and has been vital to LuHi’s success.
“It’s friendship, family,” Onyekwere said. “It’s brotherhood. We care about each other so much. We always got our back. We try to lift each other up when we’re down. We started the season 0-4 [in EYBL] and now we’re able to bounce back.”
LuHi was relentless defensively all night, forcing 15 turnovers and holding Oak Hill to 14-for-59 shooting from the field (23.7%) and 1-for-16 from three-point range.
“We focused in on hard hedging and everybody talking on defense, everybody making sure that they’re in the right positions,” Madison said. “We spent 30 minutes in practice working on rotations . . .
“We know for us — I’m not trying to sound cocky — but we know for us, the offense is going to come. It’s really about our defense. So we focused in on that and allowed [four] points to a very good team in the first quarter.”
Ben Dickson joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.
