KNOXVILLE — A University of Tennessee football signee played his final career high school basketball game Saturday night and he impressed one of Knoxville’s top high school basketball coaches.
Ensworth High School senior guard Keshawn Lawrence scored seven points in the Tigers’ season-ending 66-58 loss to Knoxville Catholic High School Saturday night in the State VIII round of the Division II-AA Playoffs.
Lawrence, a 6-foot-2, 202-pound safety on the Ensworth football team, which reached the Division II-AAA State Quarterfinals before being eliminated by eventual state champion Chattanooga McCallie, had offers from LSU, Miami (Fla.), Oklahoma and Alabama.
He signed with the Volunteers in December and is a four-star prospect on the gridiron, but Knoxville Catholic basketball coach Mike Hutchens, who has three Division I prospects on his own team, including sophomores B.J. Edwards (point guard) and Handje Tamba (power forward/center) and senior Akeem Odusipe (a center who recently visited Rhode Island), was impressed by Lawrence’s skills on the hardwood.
“Lawrence is committed to play football for Tennessee,” Hutchens said. “But he was a great basketball player before he signed to play football here.
“Ensworth is a great team and you had four or five Division I [basketball] players out there.”