Cotton Goes Over Final Hurdle

Completing what has become a celebrated late-season signing period for UCLA, forward Schea Cotton, one of the nation’s most renowned high school basketball players, learned Monday he has received a qualifying score on the Scholastic Assessment Test, making him eligible to play as a freshman next season.

“I’m so excited to finally get this monkey off my back,” said Cotton, who missed all of his senior season at Bellflower St. John Bosco because of injuries. “I studied hard for as long as I can remember because I wanted to be a Bruin so much.”

Cotton, who said in April he would attend UCLA, said he received a score of 900 on the test he took for the third time June 11. He needed at least 820.

Cotton, who is 6 feet 5 and 210 pounds, is the final piece of a strong recruiting class. Cotton and fellow UCLA recruit Baron Davis, a point guard from Santa Monica Crossroads, were listed among the nation’s best 25 players as seniors by several sources.

“The thing that jumps out at you is how UCLA closed [in the late-signing period],” said Bob Gibbons of North Carolina-based All-Star Sports Publications.

“To get Baron Davis and Schea Cotton at the end of the signing period is really something.”

Also expected to join Cotton and Davis in Westwood next season are point guard Earl Watson of Washington High in Kansas City, Mo., forward Travis Reed of Fontana A.B. Miller and guard Billy Knight of Westchester. Four of the Bruins’ top six players from last season’s team also return.