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Smith Earns National, Sun Belt & LSWA Player of the Week Honors

Smith Earns National, Sun Belt & LSWA Player of the Week Honors

Men's Basketball Feb 11
MONROE, La. – ULM senior guard Daishon Smith, who averaged 37.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 2.5 steals per game while leading the Warhawks to a home sweep over Georgia State (82-76) and Georgia Southern (88-79), has been named College Sports Madness National Mid-Major Player of the Week and Lou Henson Award National (Mid-Major) Co-Player of the Week. Smith shares the weekly Lou Henson Award with Yale's Miye Oni.
 
In addition, he has been selected Sun Belt Conference and Louisiana Sports Writer's Association Player of the Week for his performances against Georgia State and Georgia Southern.
 
The 6-foot-1, 175-pound transfer from Wichita State hit 20-of-41 field-goal attempts (49 percent), including 10-of-22 3-pointers (46 percent), and 24-of-26 free-throw attempts (92 percent). In addition, he played 77 out of 80 minutes.
 
Smith scored a game-high 38 points, connecting on 5-of-11 shots from 3-point range, and collected six rebounds, six assists and two steals in the Warhawks' 88-79 victory over Georgia Southern last Friday. He netted 21 second-half points against the Eagles, accounting for 15 of ULM's 17 points during a 5:14 stretch.
 
Smith turned in a solid all-around performance in ULM's 82-76 win over first-place Georgia State last Wednesday, finishing with 36 points, a career-best eight rebounds, seven assists and three steals. He scored 22 second-half points against the Panthers, including seven straight during a 30-second span in the final 1:37 to turn a one-point deficit into an 80-74 lead. He went a perfect 11-for-11 from the free-throw line.
 
The Jacksonville, Florida, native dedicated those games to the memory of his younger brother Marquis Smith, who was killed last Tuesday.
 
"Daishon Smith had a spectacular week," ULM head coach Keith Richard said. "Daishon did a lot of things well on both ends of the floor. He shot the ball well from the 3-point line, hit some mid-range jumpers and created a lot scoring opportunities by driving the ball to the rim. Daishon was really aggressive attacking the basket it resulted in a lot of trips to the free-throw line. While he carried the bulk of the scoring load, he also did a great job distributing the basketball, averaging 6.5 assists per game.
 
"Daishon always plays the game with great energy, but there's no doubt that he found an extra gear last week. He wanted to honor is deceased brother with his play and he certainly did."
 
It marks the second time this season Smith has collected these top weekly national, conference and statewide honors. He averaged 33.0 points, 3.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.0 steals per game while leading ULM to a home sweep over Little Rock and Arkansas State to open Sun Belt play.
 
Smith currently leads the Sun Belt in scoring (21.9 ppg.), 3-point field goals made (3.7 pg.) and 3-point field-goal percentage (.435). He is listed among the league leaders in free-throw percentage (second at .896), steals (third at 2.1 pg.), assist-to-turnover ratio (fifth at 1.8), assists (sixth at 3.9 pg.), minutes played (ninth at 33.2 pg.) and field-goal percentage (10th at 463). Smith also ranks among the NCAA Division I Top 20 in 3-point field goals made per game (10th), free-throw percentage (13th) and scoring average (18th).
 
This week, the Warhawks (13-10 overall, 6-5 Sun Belt) travel to Lafayette, Louisiana, for a conference showdown against the Ragin' Cajuns on Saturday, Feb. 16 (7 p.m. tipoff).

 
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