Teammates forever

There’s courting, and then there’s Center Courting.

Carli Smith’s most memorable moment on the basketball court came without the basketball and with her back to the basket. Shoot, the shot clock wasn’t even running.

The former Valley Christian High School standout became engaged when her fiance, Landen Grant, popped the big question during the Slam Dunk Contest at last month’s Hoopfest.

Carli was positioned, blindfolded, in a chair on the court – ostensibly to be an obstacle for Landon’s dunk attempt. Instead, the basketball player at Montana State-Northern got down on one knee, whipped off her blindfold and asked for her hand.

And got more than he bargained for.

Smith vaulted out of the seat and threw her arms and legs around Grant – all to the cheers of the assembled crowd.

“I knew he was going to ask,” Smith admitted. “We’d been talking about it, and I figured he’d ask me sometime during the summer. But he couldn’t have picked a better time or better place to do it.

“And I just loved that all our family and friends were able to share in it, too. His family is from Montana, and they were able to be there, too.”

What’s more, in years to come Smith and Grant can show the kids and grandkids the moment – complete with play-by-play and color commentary from local television coverage of the big moment.

Grant arranged for the situation ahead of time, clearing his game plan with Hoopfest organizers and asking Carli’s father, Ed, for permission ahead of time.

The couple will marry next July. “That’ll give me about a month to do final preparations after the end of school,” she explained.

Grant will begin his senior season at MSU-Northern this fall; Smith her junior year at Seattle Pacific.

Smith was back on campus this week as an instructor at the school’s basketball camp for youngsters, but before she could turn her attention to hoops she had to show off the new hardware.

“I just love my teammates, and I called them the day he asked,” she explained. “They passed the word around. And when I got there, the first thing they all wanted to see was the ring.”

Smith was voted the team’s outstanding freshman after her first season with the Falcons, and has been a key contributor off the bench – something new for a player who rarely left the court as a high school standout and State B player of the year.

“It was different,” she said. “And it was a little hard for me at first.

Any player wants to be on the floor. But I was the understudy to some very good post players and I learned a lot from them.”

Last year Smith helped the top-ranked Lady Falcons reach the NCAA Division II Elite Eight, scoring a dozen points and grabbing a team-high seven rebounds in a 94-83 loss to Drury at St. Joseph, Missouri, in a showdown between the Nos. 1- and 2-ranked teams in the nation.

“Next year it’s going to be different,” Smith predicted.

Valerie Gustafson, the team’s 6-foot-post, graduated along with 5-8 forward Kristen Poe. That figures to put Smith in the starting lineup of a nationally-ranked team.

To prepare herself for the challenge, Smith is working hard over the summer. When she’s home, you can find her and Grant working out in the gym – pushing each other hard on their fundamentals.

“It’s really great that we can push each other like that,” Smith said.

“We’re really trying to push each other to get better. You have to work hard during the summer.”