College basketball player Phil Urban shot dead in Mercedes in NJ nature preserve

A college basketball player was shot dead while sitting in a white Mercedes at a New Jersey nature preserve over the weekend, authorities said.

Phil Urban, 20 — a 6-foot-6 hoopster who graduated from the elite Pennington School — played for Post University in Connecticut before his tragic death.

The Manalapan native was shot around 7 p.m. Saturday at the Hopewell Valley Nature Preserve, the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.

Police said they found him “slumped over” in the driver’s seat of the luxury car, which was parked on a trail.

He was transported to Capital Health Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, authorities said.

Urban died from a gunshot wound, and his death is being investigated by homicide detectives. No arrests have been made.

The circumstances of his death remain unclear, but authorities said they believe he was planning to meet some at the Hopewell park.

Urban recently joined the team at Post on a basketball scholarship, and the school welcomed him in an April tweet.

One of his former teams, the New Jersey Panthers, also wrote about him on Twitter in March, “The bouncy 6’6 wing has loads of potential and we can’t wait to see what he does at Post!”

In addition, an ex-coach tweeted about him at the time, “This kid has dealt with a lot of adversity in the last year and if I told you how he handled it, you’d be proud too!

“Super excited for Philly man— stayed humble, trusted the process and accomplished a goal!”