Senior Night is always emotional, NIU head coach Ricardo Patton said.

Whether you’re the senior leaving a team or the freshman saying good-bye, it always means you’re losing part of the family that’s been built.

Saturday’s match-up against Ball State was lone senior Sean Smith’s last chance to say good-bye to fans, as the forward played his last home contest in a Huskie uniform.

“The future is bright for our young guys, and even though Sean Smith won’t be playing with us next year, he’ll still be a part of this group,” Patton said.

Smith left the Convocation Center with a bang, leading his team offensively with 20 points in a 56-55 Huskie win. In his 50th career game, the senior went 8-15 from the floor and 2-6 from 3-point range to notch his best scoring performance of the season. Prior to the game, his season high was 19 points compared to a 24-point career high.

Despite the celebration, Patton told Smith that Senior Night was over after the first time-out. Smith took the advice to heart, dropping any thought of commemoration.

“It was out of my mind right away,” Smith said. “I was just concerned about the win. Once the ball went up in the air, it became a regular game. We just tried to win and fight.”

Win and fight is what the team would do to fight back after falling to a quick 11-4 deficit. Smith only found the net for four points in the first half, but it was his second half performance that stretched NIU’s lead to as much as 10 points before BSU would make a run. Though Smith hit a trey to find the game’s only double-digit lead, it was his aggressive paint play that made for most of his 16 second-half points.

“Shots weren’t [falling] the first half so I just tried to attack the basket more and tried to get into rhythm,” Smith said. “Eventually the shots started falling.”

Shots were also falling for sophomore Darion ‘Jake’ Anderson, who followed Smith closely, scoring 19 points in the contest. Though Anderson had a great performance, he said his mind was focused on his fellow teammate.

“It was about the whole team today but importantly about Sean going out [with] a bang,” Anderson said. “That’s what I had on my mind throughout the whole day.”

Just as Anderson will miss Smith, the senior said he will always remember being a part of the Huskie family.

“Us playing together, us having fun and competing, playing hard for one another, I’ll remember that,” he said.

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