Basketball scouts have taken a good look at West High’s Eric Green, and they like what they see well enough to give Green his next big opportunity.

This fall, Green heads to Southborough, Mass., to attend St. Mark’s School, one of New England’s top schools for high school sports.

The St. Mark’s Lions were last year’s champion in boys basketball for the 16-school Independent School League, going 23-4 overall and 17-1 in league play. The Lions also won their second championship in a row in the New England Preparatory Schools Athletic Council’s C class.

Green said Thursday that he learned of the school last summer when scouts representing St. Mark’s came to the adidas 64 tournament in Las Vegas, where Green was a member of the Tracy Outlawz.

St. Mark’s is also an academic opportunity for Green, 16, who is on a pace to graduate from West with the Class of 2010, which would be a year early for his age. But at St. Mark’s, because of his age, he will be reclassified as a sophomore.

So instead of starting his senior year ahead of his age group at West, Green will have three more years of academics and athletics on the high school level.

Green said he has yet to decide where he will go to college, but he does plan to take advanced mathematics courses at St. Mark’s. He added that the academic challenge is a big motivation for the transfer.

He noted that all of St. Mark’s students are college-bound, and the basketball team is regarded highly enough that all the seniors typically get scholarships to continue playing in college.

Green, the West High basketball team’s most valuable player last year and a Tri-City Athletic League first-team selection, would have been West’s only returning starter this year. West coach Derek Sprecksel said in an e-mail message that he expected Green would be a key player in the upcoming season.

“Colleges were taking notice of him, and I’m confident that he would have received an athletic scholarship had he played the season with us next year,” Sprecksel wrote. “We still will be one of the most talented teams in this area and will be contenders to repeat as TCAL champions.”