The most famous perfect game in the history of basketball was Christian Laettner’s in the Elite Eight of the 1992 NCAA Tournament against Kentucky. That of course was the game that saw Laettner drain his iconic buzzer-beater that you’re guaranteed to see more than once each March, but that shot also was the 10th Laettner took in the game…and he made all 10. On top of that, Laettner made all 10 of his free throw attempts as well. He shot the ball 20 times, and the ball went through the hoop all 20 times.

Sean Smith was extremely close to having an identical stat line in the Edina Vet League this past Sunday. Instead of 20 total shots, Smith took 19, and while Laettner made all 20, Smith fell one shot short of a perfect game, as he made 18 of his 19 attempts.

Smith shot 11-12 from the field, 7-7 from deep and 7-7 from the free-throw line in a 110-91 win for Ready, Fire, Aim. The hot shooting night translated into a game-high 36 points for Smith, who added five assists and four rebounds.

Efficiency is nothing new for Smith, as he’s averaged 18.8 points per game on 50% shooting from the field and 44% from deep over the course of his career. Those numbers have come in mostly open, rec-plus and Dream League games, against the top competition UH Minnesota has to offer.

Now he gets to go up against players 35 and older, and so far the results are exactly what I would’ve expected. In two games this season, Smith is averaging 30/5/6.5 with shooting splits of 76/90/93. Ready, Fire, Aim are 2-0 in those two games, winning by an average of 12 points.

That’s a small sample size, but I won’t be surprised to see Smith continue to put up these type of numbers all season long in Edina.