Southeast Missouri State men's basketball announces Jaylen Benton's departure

Guard Jaylen Benton will not join the Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team for the 2017-18 season, coach Rick Ray announced Monday.

Trent Singer

Guard Jaylen Benton will not join the Southeast Missouri State men's basketball team for the 2017-18 season, coach Rick Ray announced Monday.

Benton started 21 games last season, averaging 5.9 points and 2.1 rebounds per game. He led the Redhawks with 2.6 assists per contest.

"Jaylen expressed his desire to transfer towards the end of summer school," Ray said in a news release. "We granted him his unconditional release and wish him the best of luck."

Benton is the fourth player to depart from the program since the end of last season.

On May 10, the NCAA penalized SEMO's men's basketball program after revealing its public Academic Progress Rate scores for all Division I programs. The Redhawks are ineligible for the postseason in 2017-18, while practice time will be restricted to 16 hours and five days per week during the season.

The program announced on May 18 that guard Tahj Eaddy and center William Tchiengang were leaving the program. Prior to receiving its penalties, Southeast announced on April 3 that Joel Angus III had graduated and planned to transfer.

The 6-foot-3 Benton played his sophomore season at Monroe College before transferring to Southeast. He appeared in all but three games for the Redhawks during his junior campaign. He served a two-game suspension in early February for violating team rules.