The Coastal Carolina men’s basketball program added another piece to its 2013 recruiting class Monday as Colton Ray-StCyr gave the Chanticleers a verbal commitment to join the team after spending this upcoming season at a prep school in Spartanburg.

The 6-foot-5, 170-pound combo guard out of Lafayette High School in Williamsburg, Va., visited campus Friday and made a quick decision to commit to coach Cliff Ellis and the Chants.

“You can’t beat the location where you have a beach five miles away from the campus, and coach Ellis, he’s a hall of fame coach,” Ray-StCyr said by phone Monday evening. “They really took me in from the first day they saw me. They really pulled the trigger fast and they made it clear they wanted me. I really respected the coaching staff, and I really got along with the players when I went on my visit.”

He said he also knows Elijah Wilson, a shooting guard out of Laney High School in Wilmington, N.C., who committed to the Chants last month, and he feels the two could form a productive combo at Coastal.

Wilson was initially planning to spend his prep school year at St. Ignatios Prep in Spartanburg before deciding to stay closer to home. But St. Ignatios coach Lee Thalassinos invited the Coastal coaches to come look at his team anyway and that’s when they spotted Ray-StCyr.

“He was being recruited by VMI, Richmond, Radford, Winthrop and Furman was hot on him, but they never offered him,” Thalassinos said. “[CCU assistant coach Benny Moss] and I were also working on another young man who was coming to our program, and I invited the coaches to come in and look at a couple other guys, Colton being one of them. They fell in love with him.”

According to Thalassinos, Ray-StCyr averaged 16 points, seven rebounds and eight assists last year for his high school team and he boasts a strong shot from 3-point range.

“He’s a good kid, great character and he brings something Coastal doesn’t have right now, which is clutch shooting from the 3,” Thalassinos said. “He’s a missing piece to a great puzzle they have down at Coastal Carolina.”

St. Ignatios is a third-year program and 20 out of 24 players on team’s roster the last two years have received college scholarship offers, Thalassinos said. Ray-StCyr, whose sister is also being recruited by Coastal as a volleyball player, wanted an extra year to develop his body before making the leap to the Division I collegiate level.

“I grew a foot in about a year’s time, and I just wanted to develop my body and let my body catch up with myself before I started making decisions of where I was going to play,” he said.

Coastal coaches are not permitted by NCAA rules to comment on recruits until a signed National Letter of Intent has been received, but area basketball fans can get an early look at Ray-StCyr when St. Ignatios plays in the Swanny’s Bash at the Beach tournament in Pawleys Island Jan. 19-20. The event is organized by Bret Swanson of JucoJunction.com.

Contact RYAN YOUNG at 626-0318.