Mackenzie Smith piling up awards, milestones
Shelburne native dominating at Saint Joseph’s
The milestones and honours are starting to pile up for Shelburne's Mackenzie Smith.
The five-foot-10 guard is in her third NCAA Division 1 season with Saint Joseph's University and was named the Big 5 player of the week on Monday.
Smith averaged 24 points per game, shooting 69.2 per cent from the field and 60 per cent from three-point range. She went 10-for-15 in the first game of the week against Fordham University, finishing with 24 points, six rebounds and three steals.
Smith then converted eight-of-11 shots, including four-for-four on three-point attempts, for another 24point performance against Duquesne. She added five rebounds and two assists in the game.
The King's-edgehill School alumnus also became the program's 30th player to accumulate 1,000 career points earlier in the season. She's now 23rd in school history with 1,087 points.
Smith finished the season with 13.1 points (third on the team) and 4.5 rebounds (third) per game. She also led the team with 41 steals and was sixth in assists with 44. Her best game was a 25-point effort against Yale on Nov. 11.
Smith made the Atlantic 10 all-rookie team in 2021-22 and was named a third team Atlantic 10 player in 2022-23. She was also a Big 5 secondteam all-star last year. The Big 5 is a grouping of NCAA Division 1 universities in the Philadelphia area.
Saint Joseph's opens the Atlantic 10 tournament on Friday as the No. 3 seed. The team's first game will be against the winner of Rhode Island (No. 6) and Dayton (No. 11)/St. Bonaventure (No. 14). The Hawks went 25-4 in overall play and were 15-3 in conference play to finish second in the Atlantic 10.