Washington State fills scholarship with addition of junior college transfer

PULLMAN – Ernie Kent filled one of Washington State basketball’s two remaining scholarships on Thursday with the signing of Carter Skaggs, a junior college transfer from Florida’s Chipola College.

Skaggs, a 6-foot-5 forward/wing, will have three years of eligibility with the Cougars and gives WSU another body just two days after the school announced four-star signee Roberto Gittens would not be eligible to suit up this season.

“To get a player of Carter’s caliber at this point in the year is unique and fortunate,” Kent said. “He will be a great asset to the team with his ability to shoot the ball and his high basketball IQ. We’re excited to have Carter in a Cougar uniform.”

Skaggs didn’t put up big numbers at Chipola, where he started in only two games and averaged 7.7 points. But the Loganstown, Indiana, native showed a knack for shooting the 3 and hit 40.4 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc.

At the prep level, Skaggs spent two years playing at Pioneer High (Indiana) and two more at Logansport High, where he played for his father, Pat Skaggs. He combined to score 1,587 career points and drained 252 career 3-pointers. His 252 3’s ranked seventh in Indiana state history.

After his final season at Logansport, Skaggs spent one season at Bridgton Academy – a prep school in Maine. Skaggs initially signed with NCAA Division I High Point University in North Carolina, but instead chose to play at Chipola. On June 6, after one season at Chipola, he inked with Vincennes University – a two-year juco in Indiana.

Instead, he’ll join the Pac-12 Cougars just a few days before the fall semester.

On Tuesday it was announced that Gittens, a highly-rated recruit from Tacoma’s Foss High School, would attend a junior college rather than WSU after he “came up a little bit short” in summer classes. The 2016-17 Washington 2A State Player of the Year will play his first season of college basketball at the College of Southern Idaho, though the Cougars are still part of his plans.

“Takin a different route to WSU u guys will c me on campus soon! thanks so much to WSU & FOSS HS coaching staffs..still committed #GoCougs,” Gittens tweeted Tuesday.