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Okemos junior, Laya Hartman, commits to Northwestern for basketball
Like the song says, Okemos’ Laya Hartman thinks Chicago is her kind of town.
The 5-10 wing, one of the top girls hoopsters players in the state’s junior class and an early contender for next year’s Miss Basketball award, committed to Northwestern this week. Northwestern’s campus is in Evanston, Illinois, just a few miles north of the Chicago city limits.
This past winter, Hartman averaged 17 points and 7 rebounds per game, leading her club to a Class A district title. Most recruiting services have her ranked Top 50 in the country.
Hartman joins her Okemos teammate, sophomore Jasmine Clerkley, in heading to the Big Ten to continue her hardwood career at the college level – Clerkley is committed to Michigan State. The Big Ten, though, wasn’t the only power conference in the NCAA after Hartman’s services. She held offers from Tennessee and Vanderbilt out of the SEC and Oregon State out of the PAC-12, too, among a slew of other bids.
Northwestern went 12-20 in 2018. The Wildcats most recent appearance in the NCAA Tournament was in 2015.
