Nov. 10, 2004

Columbia, Mo. - Tiger Head Basketball Coach Quin Snyder announced on Wednesday that Matt Lawrence has officially accepted an offer of admission by the University of Missouri. Lawrence, who is just beginning his senior season at Lafayette (St. Louis) High School, is an extremely skilled player and will be a quality addition to the Tiger basketball family in 05-06.

"Matt is the complete package when it comes to being a student athlete," Snyder said. "He demonstrates an extremely high skill level and basketball IQ on the court and also takes care of business in the classroom. He is a competitor and a winner, we are excited to have him join us at Mizzou and we appreciate the sacrifice he has made to initially come to Missouri without a scholarship."

At 6-6 and 195 pounds, Lawrence possesses great range, solid ball handling skills and is not afraid to shoot a pull up jumper. Lawrence was the Player of the Year last season in the Suburban West Conference after averaging 16.1 points and 5.0 rebounds per contest for Coach Dave Porter. He was also named to the Class 5 All-State First Team by both the coaches and the writers from around the state of Missouri.

He is an excellent free throw shooter, knocking down 83 percent of his attempts as a junior while also hitting on over 60 percent of his two-point field goal attempts. Lawrence has been an excellent student at Lafayette, recording a 3.7 GPA during his high school career while continuing to work hard and develop his skills on the court.

Lawrence will be one of three Tigers on the 05-06 squad from the city of greater St. Louis and one of four Tigers from the state of Missouri. He chose Missouri over Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi and Stanford. Mizzou takes on Northwest Missouri State on Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. The contest will be broadcast on the Mizzou Sports Network.