The St. John’s Edge have made their first roster moves of the 2019-2020 National Basketball League of Canada regular season and in doing so are bringing back a familiar face.
The Edge have signed power forward Olu Ashaolu as the injury reserve designate for fellow Canadian Murphy Burnatowski, who is expected to be sidelined for the next six to eight weeks with a knee injury.
In a corresponding move, the team released American Elijah Macon, who averaged about 4.5 points and 2.5 rebounds in the first eight games for St. John’s (4-4).
The 31-year-old Ashaolu appeared in 28 games for the Edge last season, averaging 10.5 points and 5.7 rebounds per outing while shooting 57.0% from the field. Most recently, he had been playing with the Goyang Orions in Korea; he had also had a second stint with the NLEX Warriors of the Philippine Basketball Association after finishing last season with the Edge, who made it all the way to the NBLC final before losing to the Moncton Magic.
Ashaolu suffered a knee injury in Game 1 of the final and was sidelined for the remainder of the series.
“He was a key cog in what we did last season and it will be a seamless transition to add him into what we are building here in St. John’s,” said Edge coach Steve Marcus of Ashaolu, who is a native of Nigeria, but has dual Nigerian-Canadian citizenship,
He played NCAA Division One basketball at Louisiana Tech and Oregon, spending his final year as a transfer at the latter school after graduating from the former with a business administration degree.
The next games for the Edge are Tuesday and Wednesday against the Sudbury 5 at Mile One Centre.
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