The Missouri State men’s basketball team has received three early commitments for the 2017-18 season, according to head coach Paul Lusk, who received National Letters of Intent from the trio of standout players Wednesday and Thursday (Nov. 9-10).
Set to join the Bears next year are: Mustafa Lawrence (5-11, 165, Fr., G, Newark, N.J., Essex County Vocational High, Forest Trail Prep); Darian Scott (6-11, 200, Fr., C, Las Vegas, Nev., Centennial High); and Reggie Scurry (6-7, 220, Jr., F, Augusta, Ga., North Clayton High, Northern Oklahoma Tonkawa College).
“I’m very excited about this year’s early signing class,” said Lusk. “We have addressed some of our needs we thought were important moving forward. We have signed a point guard, a versatile forward and a post player, which is very exciting for our program.”
Mustafa Lawrence
A two-sport standout, Lawrence averaged 28.9 points and 5.1 assists per game as a senior for Essex County Vo-Tech High School in Newark, N.J., last year before moving on to Forest Trail Prep School in Kernersville, N.C. Lawrence will play for coach Tony Taylor at Forest Trail this season. He was part of three state championship teams at Essex County and became the first athlete to be inducted into the school’s hall of fame before attending college. He tallied 50 points against Bloomfield (N.J.) High on his high school senior night for coach Joe Jordan’s Terriers. He averaged 19.0 points per game as a junior and 13.5 points per game as a sophomore. He was also an all-state wide receiver in football.
Darian Scott
A long and athletic rim protector, Scott enters his senior season at Centennial High in Las Vegas as the No. 7 ranked player in the state of Nevada, according to ESPN. He helped lead the Bulldogs to a 24-3 record and Nevada Class 4A semifinals last season. As the starting center for coach Noah Hartsock’s squad, Scott was fifth on the Gauntlet series circuit in blocked shots for the Las Vegas Knicks AAU team where he also averaged 5.7 rebounds per game over the summer. He has been team captain for his high school team the last two seasons, helped Centennial to back-to-back Sunset Conference titles and been an academic all-state selection each of the past two years. His sophomore season, he averaged 14.3 points, 8.3 rebounds and was named team player of the game twice.
Reggie Scurry
A powerful forward with a versatile skill set, Scurry is a sophomore at Northern Oklahoma Tonkawa College where he is averaging 15.5 points and 11.5 rebounds through five games. Last season, he started 25 games and was named team freshman of the year by his coaches and teammates, including current Bear Jarrid Rhodes, after scoring in double figures in five of his last six games. He helped coach Donnie Jackson’s Mavericks to a 26-7 overall record, No. 25 national ranking and 15-3 ledger in the OCAC in 2015-16. Scurry averaged 8.2 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game while converting 57.4 percent of his field goal attempts for the NJCAA Region 2 runners-up his freshman year. He was a Georgia Class 3A first-team all-state selection as a senior for coach Martisse Troup at North Clayton High in Augusta, Ga., where he averaged 17.8 points, 10.0 rebounds and 3.0 blocks in 2014-15. He was a three-year starter for the Eagles and was named to the GBCA North-South All-Star Game in addition to being named to the Atlanta All-Metro squad as an honorable mention selection.
Lusk and the Bears begin the 2016-17 campaign on Friday night when they host Alabama A&M at JQH Arena at 7:05 p.m. Tickets for the season opener are available at MissouriStateBears.com or by visiting the Old Missouri Bank Ticket Window at JQH Arena, (417) 836-7678.
