Last Week’s Stats: 28.5 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 48.4 FG%, 1.000 FT%
The NEC’s first 40-point game of the season piloted Smith to his league-leading fifth Influxer/NEC Men’s Basketball Player of the Week award of 2025-26. Thanks to that 40-point outing, Smith, who has netted double figures in each of his past five games, averaged 28.5 points on 48.4 percent shooting from the field (15-of-31). Smith was virtually unstoppable against New Haven on Thursday. Draining 13-of-20 shots, including 3-of-5 from behind the arc and each of his 11 free throw attempts, the Springfield, MA native racked up a career-high 40 points to guide the Blue Devils to an 81-76 victory over the Chargers. The 40-point outing was Central Connecticut’s first since Kyle Vinales netted 42 against Wagner 2013, and the first by an NEC player since Le Moyne’s Kaiyem Clearly turned the trick with a 43-point outburst against LIU in 2024. Fourteen of the sophomore’s points came inside the first six minutes of the second half in a stretch that saw the Blue Devils push ahead by 15 points. Two days later, Smith visited the free throw line 13 times and made all of those attempts to finish with 17 points. Twelve of those free throws came inside the game’s final 3:10 to break what was a 47-47 tie. Smith leads the league in scoring with 20.3 points per game.