Dimond High graduate Colter Lasher became the third Alaskan this spring to land with an NCAA Division I men's basketball team.
Lasher, a 6-foot-7 forward, returned to his high school alma mater on Friday to sign a letter of intent to play for Houston Baptist, which plays in the Great West Conference.
He's the second player from Dimond's 2012 Class 4A state championship team to make it to Division I. Ryden Hines, a 6-9 forward, earlier this spring committed to play at Iona, a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference school in New Rochelle, N.Y.
A third Anchorage player, Jalil Abdul-Bassett, who played at East and West, signed with the University of Oregon last month.
Lasher and Hines both delayed college basketball by a year to go to Impact Basketball, a Las Vegas academy that has helped turn three Alaskans into Division I prospects. Devon Bookert, who got significant playing time this season as a freshman at Florida State, spent a year at Impact after graduating from West in 2011.
Abdul-Bassett traveled a different path to Division I -- he played two seasons of junior college basketball before signing with the Ducks.
Anchorage Daily News