- Syracuse basketball’s all-time leading scorer, Lawrence Moten, has died at the age of 53.
- Moten scored a school-record 2,334 career points and was a second-team All-American as a senior.
- Former coach Jim Boeheim called Moten one of the most underrated college basketball players of all time.
Lawrence Moten, a Syracuse basketball star in the early 1990s and still the school’s all-time leading scorer, died Tuesday, Sept. 30, at his home in Washington, D.C., family members confirmed.
He was 53.
Moten was a lightly recruited 6-5 guard when he arrived on campus in 1991, but he became an immediate starter as a freshman and averaged 18.2 points per game in leading the Orange to the first of three appearances in the NCAA Tournament during his college career.
Nicknamed ‘Poetry in Moten,’ he went on to set a school record with 2,334 career points, averaging 19.3 points per game over four years and gaining second-team All-America honors as a senior.
‘Lawrence’s passing is such a sudden thing; it’s very hard to take,’ former Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘He was one of the most underrated college basketball players of all time. I believe some people took his ability for granted because he made it look so easy. Lawrence was one of our greatest players and one of the best in the history of the Big East Conference.’
Moten had his No. 21 jersey retired in a pregame ceremony at the Carrier Dome in 2018.
Aftre leaving Syracuse, Moten was a second-round pick of the Vancouver Grizzlies in the 1995 NBA draft. He played two seasons with them and an additional eight games with his hometown Washington Wizards in 1998.
His cause of death was not announced.