Khalil Luster makes 3-pointers. He makes defender-freezing crossover dribbles and no-look passes. And he makes believers.
Luster, a four-year starter at point guard for Lima Senior High School, does all these things at 5 feet, 6-inches tall, which explains why he has had to make believers.
“That’s how it’s been. I’ve definitely had to prove myself every time. I started playing on a high level AAU team when I was in sixth grade. I had to prove myself there. After that, it was every time. Every time I did anything I had to prove myself because of my height,” he said.
Luster averaged 15.2 points and 6.7 assists a game for Lima Senior this season when the Spartans qualified for a Division I regional championship game for the fourth consecutive year. He was a 42-percent shooter from 3-point territory and hit 89 percent from the free throw line.
He went over 1,000 points in his career in Lima Senior’s tournament opener and has been first-team All-Three Rivers Conference the last two seasons. He was third-team All-Ohio last year. Lima Senior won 89 games the last four seasons.
Add it all up and he is the Player of the Year on The Lima News Boys Dream Team for 2022.
Lima Senior boys basketball Quincey Simpson was someone who did not require much convincing once Luster got to high school. All it took was 32 minutes.
Luster came off the bench the first game of his freshman season and scored 10 points in a loss at Anthony Wayne. By Game 2, Luster was the starting point guard in an otherwise experienced lineup.
“We were just talking about that last week. I was so mad we lost that game I didn’t ride the bus home. I remember texting him and saying, ‘From this point on you’re the starting point guard,’ ” Simpson said.
Lima Senior won nine games in a row and 12 of the first 13 games Luster started. The rest is history.
“I always hung with older kids. They weren’t looking at me like a freshman telling them what to do but like I was one of them, we were all the same,” he said.
By the time he was a junior Luster became one of the Spartans’ top scoring threats at 13.8 points a game.
“My freshman and sophomore years I had to play my role because we had people who could score better than me and do things better than me. Once my junior year came and Josiah (Fulcher) and Jamir (Simpson) and all those guys left I became a scorer and I became a person he (Quincey Simpson) looked to to become a scorer and called plays for and stuff like that,” Luster said.
What Luster wants to become next is a college basketball player. The question is where he will do that and at what level.
Once again, he’s having to make believers.
“Right now I’m just being patient, looking at the options. I don’t want to rush it. I want to go where I fit in,” Luster said.
“I’ll go anywhere, especially if it is the right fit for me. I know it’s not going to be a coach like Coach Q because our relationship is more than just basketball. I’m looking for someone I can trust and somewhere that feels like home.”
Simpson said, “There have been a lot of barriers he has had to break down, a lot of adversity, a lot of walls he had to climb over. And he did a tremendous job. Being small no one is going to give you the same chance as the 6-2 guards. There is only a small group of college coaches that believes in small guards so you have to be able to connect with those guys.
“He invested the time it takes to be in this position. He might end up at a school most people might not know but he’s going to have a career.
“The only thing left is a full scholarship and he and I are both sure that is going to happen,” Simpson said.
“Somebody is going to feel like they got a steal. It will be interesting to see where he ends up. It’s going to be his decision, obviously. He’s a high academic kid so technically he’s not a junior college kid. But we are leaving all doors open. We’re going to trust God to put him in the right position. This won’t be the last we hear of Khalil Luster,” he said.
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