Prep stars Isaiah Cottrell, Richard Isaacs Jr. transfer

Two of the area’s top basketball recruits are leaving the Las Vegas Valley.

Bishop Gorman big man Isaiah Cottrell, a four-star recruit, will play his senior year at Huntington Prep in Huntington, West Virginia. And Coronado point guard Richard Isaacs Jr., a five-star recruit, is transferring to Wasatch Academy in Mount Pleasant, Utah, where he will be a sophomore.

The two announced their decisions this week via Twitter. Cottrell retweeted Huntington Prep’s announcement.

Cottrell was a first-team all-state selection last season after averaging 15.2 points, 9.3 rebounds and 4.3 blocks for the Gaels, who won their seventh consecutive state championship and played in the prestigious GEICO national tournament in New York.

He committed to West Virginia in June and had more than 25 Division I scholarship offers. Huntington Prep is about 200 miles from the school’s campus.

Sophomore forward Max Allen is expected to fill Cottrell’s void in the starting lineup for Gorman, which returns several Division I recruits and figures to compete again for a berth in the GEICO nationals. Allen has offers from UNLV and Boston College.

Last season as a freshman, Isaacs teamed with fellow five-star recruit Jaden Hardy to form one of the most formidable backcourts on the West Coast. He averaged 14.2 points and 6.9 assists and helped the Cougars reach the Desert Region championship game, which they lost to Gorman.

Isaacs won a gold medal with USA Basketball’s under-16 team at the FIBA Americas tournament in July and starred for his club basketball team, Vegas Elite, during the spring and summer. He has scholarship offers from Arizona, Kansas, Texas Tech and Florida State — among others — and is drawing recruiting interest from Duke and Kentucky.

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Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.