Marc Narducci: MVP Smith holds his own with big-name stars

The last thing that Mike Smith expected to be doing late Sunday afternoon was holding a trophy that wasn't much smaller than the 5-foot-9 Woodbury guard.

Yet there he was, being announced as the MVP of the winning East team after Sunday's 118-101 victory over the West in the 35th annual Albert J. Carino Boys Basketball Club of South Jersey Senior All-Star Game at Rutgers-Camden.

Smith, who averaged 17.1 points this season, scored a game-high 17 points and was named his team's MVP.

He is not one of the big names, and he plays for a Group 1 school, but his performance opened some eyes, including his own.

"I didn't expect anything like this," Smith said. "It's a great experience playing against the best in South Jersey, especially a talented player like Ron Curry."

Smith was referring to the Paul VI guard and James Madison recruit who was the MVP for the West with 16 points.

Then again, the more he kept stroking shots, the more Smith realized that he belonged on the same court with many more highly publicized all-stars.

"I went in thinking I can be like any other player," he said.

On this day, he was wrong. Smith was better than the others, which was affirmed by his postgame award.

Smith's game revolves around accuracy. He was unofficially 7 for 12 from the field, including 3 of 5 from beyond the arc. We say unofficially, because the only thing more difficult than stopping Smith from the perimeter is keeping statistics in a game in which shots were flying from all angles and defense was sort of a foreign concept.

Smith understands that he is a relatively unknown performer to many observers in South Jersey, especially since this season, he said, was his first as a full-time starter.

Even his East coach, Jay Flanagan of Rancocas Valley, had not heard of Smith before the team assembled for its two practices last week.

Once on the court, Smith immediately made a favorable impression.

"I didn't know much about him, but you could see from our practices that he was a natural scorer," Flanagan said.

The East broke open the game for good late in the third quarter. Up by 84-73, the East extended its lead to 90-73 when Smith hit treys on consecutive possessions.

"That is just something I do," he said matter-of-factly.

Like Smith, his Woodbury team flew under the proverbial radar despite having an outstanding year. The Thundering Herd went 20-10 but had no hardware to show for it, mainly because of their neighbors to the south.

Woodbury finished second to Paulsboro in the Colonial Conference Patriot Division, losing both regular-season games to the Red Raiders. The Thundering Herd then advanced to the South Jersey Group 1 championship before suffering an 88-74 loss to Paulsboro.

That's a Paulsboro team that finished 30-1. In the sectional final, Woodbury trailed by just two points entering the fourth quarter.

Smith gave it all he had, scoring a game-high 31 points.

And while nothing takes away the sting of losing in a sectional final, even though the opponent was a prohibitive favorite, Smith was elated to walk out of the gym a winner in his final high school game on Sunday.

"It's my last game, so to win, and to get the MVP, it's something I will never forget," he said.

And neither will anybody who saw his final performance.

The player few knew made everybody remember his name with a performance that was symbolic of his outstanding, if understated, senior season.