Senior forward Terrence Smith, an Iowa football recruit and the difference maker on a basketball court, is back for West Aurora. And it couldn’t have come at a better time.
Smith had the start of his basketball season delayed until the new year by a knee injury. The wide receiver needed to have an arthroscopic procedure after a second-round playoff football loss.
Now, three games into basketball at its midpoint, the 6-foot-5 Smith hasn’t missed a beat.
“The leg’s feeling good, ready to pop,” he said. “I’m trying to get back to the old me — starting to get my bounce back. Everything is feeling good. It’s coming back for sure.”
It was obvious from the start Friday night when the Blackhawks traveled to Bartlett for an Upstate Eight West showdown between two of the three teams tied atop the standings with one loss each.
High-flying Smith sparked West Aurora with a pair of dunks to open the game and scored 17 of his game-high 19 points in the first half as the Blackhawks took charge of runaway 64-35 decision.
It was a far cry from the teams’ first meeting a month earlier, won 68-65 at home in double overtime by West Aurora (8-8, 6-1).
“It was definitely a team I wanted to beat because the last time I wasn’t playing,” said Smith, who also had six rebounds.
Smith added two more dunks, both coming as the trailer behind lobs off the backboard by junior guard Jaden Edwards that Smith slammed home.
“He knew I was coming behind him and I told him to throw it up,” Smith said of Edwards. “That’s just the connection we’ve got.”
Sophomore point guard Travis Brown added 14 points and three assists for West Aurora, while senior center Gabe Gonzales chipped in with eight points and seven rebounds.
Sophomore guard Joseph Cwik scored 10 points to lead the Hawks (8-10, 5-2), but defense was definitely the name of this game.
“He does make a difference,” Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith said of Smith. “I think from the get-go, they came out trying to send a message and we received a message. Unfortunately, by the time we received it, we were down 20 points.
“It was a buzzsaw. Coach (Michael) Fowler did a great job. They played great defense and they flew up and down the court. That’s old school, West Aurora basketball.”
The Hawks had five turnovers and took just one shot in the opening three minutes of the game and were fortunate to trail just 19-10 after one quarter.
It was 41-21 at halftime, however.
Lost in the shuffle may have been the defense played by Smith on senior guard Colin Taylor, who came into the game averaging a team-best 17 points for Bartlett. He ended up with just six.
“My assignment was to lock him down, and I was doing what I could out there,” Smith said. “I feel like I did my job.”
It didn’t go unnoticed by Fowler.
“I think the boys stepped up, especially on the defensive end,” Fowler said. “Nos. 1 and 2 (Taylor and Cwik) are their best two perimeter players. ‘T’ stepped up, but so did everybody on the floor.
“We took them out of their offense and just got loose on our transition. We got out on top of them early and stayed on top of them.”
The spearhead of that was Smith.
“He just brings a different dynamic to our basketball team,” Fowler said. “We were waiting on him and several others we’ve been missing the first half. We’re getting some consistency, and we just need to keep it like that going forward.”
Wolfsmith likes the Blackhawks’ chances.
“We both have a game left with Larkin, but (West Aurora) is in the driver’s seat now,” he said. “We had a chance, but if they play like that game, they’re going to be hard to beat.”
