Deaflympics USA Basketball Team Features Former Lyon College Scot Chris Smith

Deaflympics USA Basketball Team Wins Gold Medal Defeating Ukraine 81-57

Former Lyon Scot Chris Smith

SOFIA, Bulgaria – After a stellar four-year college career at Lyon College, former Scot women’s basketball player Chris Smith is now taking her game on the road, so to speak. And it appears she has picked up her tempo of play to a new level as she has helped the U.S.A. National Team to an undefeated record and a spot in the Gold Medal game at the 2013 Summer Deaflympics in Bulgaria.

The National Team, which is made up of 10 players from Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., along with a member of the University of California Davis squad and the 5-4 former Scot forward from Bentonville, Ark., rolled through pool play and is currently 6-0 at the international competition.

The U.S.A. team defeated the Ukrainian team 81-57 Saturday morning to win the gold medal. A replay of the game can be seen online by going to http://www.sofia2013.com/live/program.

The U.S. squad, which was paired up with national teams from Ukraine, Belarus, Italy and China in pool play, was unstoppable, posting four straight victories, outscoring its opponents by 378-128. The average margin of victory in the contests was 62.5 points per game.

The Deaflympics USA Basketball Team defeated Italy (85-26), Ukraine (75-43), China (109-24) and Belarus (109-35) to head into bracket play with an unblemished record. Ukraine went 3-1, Belarus posted a 2-2 mark, Italy was 1-3 and China was winless at 0-4.

Full box scores of all the games weren’t available, but Smith was one of a number of players on the U.S. squad who took control as she scored 15 points in the 59-point win over Italy in the opening round and 12 points in the 32-point victory over Ukraine.

As the United States squad scored triple-digits in the 85-point margin over China for its third straight victory, Smith led the way, scoring 20 points, on 8-of-10 shooting from the field.

The United States continued into bracket play much like it ended pool play, blowing past Japan, 90-25. Three different U.S. players posted double-digit rebounding games. Japan was winless (0-3) heading into bracket play.

In the semifinals against a tough Greece squad (3-1 in pool play), the U.S. was played to its closest contest of the National team’s games, but still won by 15 points in a 66-51 victory.

Smith, who wears No. 10 on the Olympic squad, finished her career at Lyon College by helping the Scots to a pair of NAIA Division I National Tournament berths and the Institution’s first American Midwest Conference championship this past spring. She averaged 8.6 points per game during her senior campaign at Lyon, scoring 645 points in four years, to go along with 130 assists and 85 steals.

Chris Smith is the daughter of Mike and Michelle Smith of Bentonville.

Courtesy Lyon College Department of Athletics