Luster said his dad, 41-year-old Jehosh Luster, died of a stroke back home in Lima on June 7.
Scott’s mother, Tatsinda Hawkins-Scott who lived in Hammond, Indiana, died July 22 after a three-year battle with breast cancer. She was 55.
“When my mom passed, I didn’t care about anything and got down on myself,” Scott said. “I had no energy. I just thought about putting the ball down. I thought of quitting.”
The freefall was magnified for both Luster and him because they had entered the transfer portal and were leaving the schools they’d played for last season.
Luster had spent two years coming off the bench at Findlay.
Scott had played in five early-season games at Western Carolina. It was his fourth college in four years, although his first stop deserves a qualifier. That 2020-21 season at Feather River College in California was cancelled due to the COVID pandemic.
Both players ended up this season at Central State, which had a new coach in Travis Lewis, the former Cleveland State assistant and once a basketball and football player at Eastern Michigan.
He set out to reshape the once-proud Marauders hoops program which had won just 14 of 82 games the past three seasons.
After Tuesday’s game — the 14-11 Marauders’ seventh win in the past eight games — both Scott and Luster said they had landed at the “perfect” place.
They weren’t referring to CSU’s reversal of fortune on the court. They were talking about the way they’ve been guided through their sense of loss and grief to see the good in life again.
Both mentioned the family feel they have gotten in the first HBCU experience of their careers.
“I don’t like it here… I love it,” said Scott, who also was at Rider College and starred for one season at Consumes River College in Sacramento.
Luster had similar thoughts: “I love this place. I’ve been embraced here.”
While they each credited Lewis for atmosphere and culture they found, he in turn pointed to Dr. Joe Carr, the noted sports psychologist who has worked with college hoops teams and the NBA for decades.
Carr has mentored myriad programs — including Georgetown, Missouri, Texas A & M, Florida Gulf Coast, Cal, and Duquesne — and has been championed by coaches like the late John Thompson, his longtime friend, Dennis Gates, Keith Dambrot and now Lewis, who is in his first head coaching job at the college level.
“I have seven guys on my roster who lost a parent in the past two years,” Lewis said. “Doc Carr has been amazing. He has really taught us how to be connected; how to mold our team and come together through all our trials and tribulations.
“Back when I was a player at Eastern Michigan he was there. And when I was coaching at Cleveland State , he was with our staff. I’ve seen what he can do and that’s why I wanted him to help our team, too.
“I have to credit our administration for allowing me the funds to get him here. They believed in my vision and how it could build the foundation for the minimal success we’ve already had,”
Lewis believes it’s only going to get better and Tuesday night offered some proof.
The Marauders played at Tuskegee a month earlier and lost by 17.
“That game they made 13 threes and outrebounded us by double digits,” Lewis said. “That was part of our emphasis this game: How can we take away the threes and limit their offensive rebounding opportunities.”
Tuesday, Tuskegee made just 5 of 14 three-point attempts and CSU outrebounded them, 33-31.
Lewis credits this season’s turn around to “the connectivity” that Carr helped foster on his team.
“I truly believe the most connected team wins because of that synergy, that energy, and the chance it gives you to win late.
“If you watch our games, you’ll see they embody our connectivity. It’s in everything. Even if we make a turnover, two guys have to go touch so we stay connected. You even see it in the way we stand in the huddle.”
And no one this season has appreciated a reassuring hand of their shoulder more than Luster and Scott.
‘I’ve found nothing but love’
Although at 5-foot-6 he was shorter than his dad, who also was a player of note at Lima Sr, Luster was a 1,000-point scorer for the Spartans.
In two seasons at Findlay, he played in 54 games and averaged just over 5 ppg.
Lewis — who had been the head coach at Toledo St. Francis de Sales, which was in the same conference as Lima Senior — knew Luster well.
“Our team played against him and at one time I used to question his size,” Lewis admitted.
But when he saw Luster’s name in the transfer portal, he thought back to a game when the Spartans point guard made a play on one of his top players, Jakiel Wells, who went on to a stellar career at Shawnee State and now is a CSU assistant.
“That got me thinking about him in other terms than just his size,” Lewis said. “I thought about how much he wants to be in the gym; how tough he was; and the program and community he came from.
“I realized he embodies the Travis Lewis program with his toughness and grit. He could give us a level of leadership, steeliness and connectiveness. He could instill confidence in our guys. If you look at his last two games before tonight, he had 13 assists.”
Tuesday, Luster hit three three-point shots in the first half to lift CSU to a double digit lead it would hold onto most of the game.
The Marauders were led by Steven Key II with 18 points; Savion Marshall-Hamilton with 15 and Javantae Randall with 10.
Scott, who had eight points, is the Marauders’ second leading scorer (13.3 ppg) and leads the team in steals.
And he had to adjust to the team and the school quickly this season.
He buried his mother Aug. 8. That same day Lewis called him and convinced him not to quit basketball, but instead to come to CSU.
A week later he was on campus.
“I was a week behind but Coach Lewis trusted I could catch up on my schoolwork and with my teammates and I did.
“Since I got here I’ve found nothing but love.”
He said he’s grieved his mother privately in his room: “‘m not much of a crier. I just put on soft music and think of her: She was an outstanding lady. She went to an HBCU, too – Alcorn State. She was a big helper in our community and back home people were devastated, too.”
He said the basketball court has offered him the most respite this season:
“This year I’m having fun again.”
‘Perfect time for us to be winning games’
Last season the Marauders went 3-25. They won just five and six games in the two seasons before that.
“For what Central State has done for me, I just want to help us get as many wins as possible. They haven’t had a winning season in like five years.”
Like Scott, the court has been a tonic for him this season.
“A gym like this where it all started for me and my dad,” he said. “He’s the one who first put a ball in my hands. That’s why I believe he’s watching down on me now and I’m making him proud for what we’re all doing here.”
Scott had a similar thought: “If my mom was here tonight, she would have been yelling. She was crazy when she was cheering me.”
He quieted for a moment and finally put the night in perspective:
“This is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so this is the perfect time for us to be winning games. I’m dedicating them to her.”
He was smiling now.
Instead of loss, he was thinking about victory.
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