More ($): Purdue recruiting notes from Friday night
FORT WAYNE — Dravyn Gibbs-Lawhorn missed most of the past two grassroots seasons prior to this one due to injury.
This spring, specifically last weekend, the Purdue Class of 2023 commitment has made up for lost time, dominating the Nike EYBL event at Westfield a week ago during his first run with his new Indy Heat team.
"I don't think I've played my best yet, the game that no one's seen me play yet," Gibbs-Lawhorn said after Indy Heat's win Friday evening, opening night of the annual Bill Hensley Memorial Run 'N Slam in Fort Wayne. "But I think I did well. Everything was clicking. My shot was clicking, my drives to the basket were clicking, my floater was clicking.
"But the best thing that was clicking was the team all together."
In Westfield, Gibbs-Lawhorn averaged a weekend-best 21 points per game. Indy Heat, which went 1-3 at the prior EYBL stop in Orlando before adding him, won all four of its games at Grand Park. (Gibbs-Lawhorn played in Orlando with Vegas Elite, with which he aligned while at prep school in Utah, before moving to Montverde Academy in Florida.)
Gibbs-Lawhorn hasn't been fazed by playing on the EYBL, the highest-level of the grassroots circuits.
Part of that's been his natural ability. He was one considered a blue-chip prospect when he was a freshman at McCutcheon in Lafayette before getting sidetracked by the foot injury and a setback that compounded matters.
But part of it, too, is that much of what he sees competitively this spring and summer might even represent a step down from life at Montverde, which had six Rivals.com five-star prospects this past season and three four-stars, Gibbs-Lawhorn being one of them. And it played a national schedule that included many of the best teams and players in America.
"I've been against the best," Gibbs-Lawhorn said. "At Montverde, we won the GEICO national championship three years in a row. That means we're the best. Just practicing against the best players every day makes come out here against these guys and try to play dominant.
"It never hurts to open some eyes and get your name out there a little more."
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