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Guard Shaun Lawton will return to Maine next season

lawton

Maine Athletics

With guard Xavier Pollard and wing Dmitry Akanda-Coronel having decided to transfer, new Maine head coach Bob Walsh will begin his tenure without two of the Black Bears’ top three scorers from a season ago. The question for Walsh and his staff was whether or not Maine would actually be without three of its top four scorers, with guard Shaun Lawton asking for and receiving a release from his scholarship.

Walsh gave Lawton, who averaged 8.1 points and 4.2 assists per game last season, the time and space he needed to make a decision while doing some work himself to determine whether or not Lawton would be a good fit for the program moving forward.

Thursday it was reported by Pete Warner of the Bangor Daily News that Lawton will indeed return to Orono for his junior season, giving Maine some valuable experience as they look to improve upon last season’s 6-23 campaign. In the story Walsh praised Lawton for keeping on task academically during the period in which he was deciding whether or not to return to the program.

“I talked to his teammates, I talked to the administration and the people in the athletic department, the academic people,” Walsh explained. “I literally talked to anybody who knew him and said, tell me your take on him.”

Walsh said he supported Lawton’s wish to stay but asked him to mull it over before deciding.

“I didn’t want anybody who wasn’t totally committed,” Walsh said. “He thought about it, and he called me and he said, ‘Coach, I want to be a part of the culture that you’re going to build there.’ We’re happy that he’ll be with us.”


Also expected back is forward Zarko Valjarevic, who averaged 11.3 points per game in 2013-14. Maine announced the signing of two recruits last week, with guards Aaron Calixte and Kevin Little signing National Letters of Intent to join the program.

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