COVINGTON, Ga. — The 2017-18 Newton High boys basketball team may have just gotten instantly better. 

That’s because five-star junior point guard, Ashton Hagans, is reportedly enrolled at Newton and will return for his junior season with the 2016-17 Class AAAAAAA Elite Eight qualifiers. 

Hagans, a 6-foot-3, 180 pound point guard with offers from over 25 NCAA Division I schools including Auburn, Kansas and North Carolina —  with heavy interest from the likes of Kentucky and Louisville — starred as a sophomore for the nationally ranked Rams last season, and was thought to be headed to the prestigious Oak Hill Academy in Virginia to play out the rest of his prep career. 

But several mentions of Hagans’ being back at Newton emerged on Twitter Friday afternoon, and his enrollment and return to Newton High was confirmed by the school. 

Hagans averaged 14 points points, 11 assists and three steals per game during his sophomore campaign at Newton, and put up similarly impressive numbers on the AAU circuit. He is widely considered the top point guard prospect in Georgia, regardless of class and is a consensus top 25 ranked player among national recruiting services. 

His return to the Rams would instantly bolster what is considered to be a talented, yet more inexperienced bunch than last year’s squad that lost to eventual Class AAAAAAA state champion Tift County in the state playoffs. 

Stay tuned to www.covnews.com as we bring you more as the story develops.