BILLINGS — The game’s opening tip-off was almost comical. It even brought a smile to the face of Rae Smart, and it was at her expense.
Smart, a 5-foot-9 senior for Billings Skyview, has been tasked this season with jumping the opening tip each night and she’s used to going up against players taller than she. This time, though, against Bozeman and its 6-2 center Nula Anderson, an elite athlete who has committed to playing volleyball for Washington State, the difference was stark.
Anderson easily won the tip, and Smart quickly retreated to defend with a smile and a look on her face that could have said, ‘Well, that was futile.’
But that’s about as close as you’ll ever get to seeing Smart concede anything. The defending state champion Falcons needed to fill some holes with the graduation of two-time Gatorade player of the year Breanna Williams, now redshirting at the University of Maryland, and Smart has picked up a lot of that burden by averaging double digits in points and rebounds for the fifth-ranked Falcons.
“We ask her to do a lot,” Skyview coach Randy Chase said after that game against Bozeman, a come-from-behind victory in which Smart battled her way to 11 points and 12 rebounds, all the while holding her own against Anderson. “I mean, you would like a whole team of Raes just because of how hard she works and how hard she plays.
“Her work ethic is second to none. (Assistant coach) Todd Bertsch says this a lot, too: There is nobody that outworks her.”
Chase calls Smart a “positionless” player because she’s everywhere doing a bit of everything. When matchups warrant, Smart will play point guard, and even though she’s the one pushing the ball up the floor, Smart spends most of Skyview’s offensive possessions posting up on the block, giving up inches to her opponents, constantly trying to give herself space, playing her preferred physical style. When the Falcons are on defense, Smart is either anchoring the bottom of the zone or playing man-to-man in the post, again leaning and pushing for position.
By game’s end — usually even before then — Smart appears to be dragging herself up and down the floor. But her unbending will pushes her forward.
“Sometimes you get a little tired,” Smart admitted, “but you have to dig deep and just find some part of you to keep going, because the team has to have that continuous energy.
“To find it, even when you’re tired, it can hard sometimes. But you have to find it, because it’s going to be needed, even later in life, too.”
Smart didn’t become a varsity basketball player until her sophomore year, and she averaged 3.7 points. But her 5.1 rebounds were third-best on a Falcons team that finished third at state in 2022-23, the year after Skyview won its first state championship.
Last season, when the Falcons went unbeaten on their way to a second title in three years, Smart averaged 8.9 points and 5.4 rebounds.
That dig-deep mentality is what coaches value from players, but it doesn’t always show up on the stat sheet. Players like Smart must be seen to be appreciated.
After her junior season, she was surprised to get an invitation to attend the summer camp of Montana State Billings women’s basketball coach Kevin Woodin. Playing college basketball wasn’t even on her radar. Most inquiries about her college future had come from junior colleges, some even giving her the chance to play both soccer, where she finished a four-year varsity career in Skyview's top-5 for career goals and assists, and track and field.
Last spring was a breakout season in track for Smart. She won the Class AA individual shot put title and placed second in the discus and third in the javelin.
After seeing Smart at his camp, Woodin continued watching her play in local summer tournaments and soon decided to make Smart an offer to join the Yellowjackets. She jumped at the chance, and just that quickly, almost out of the blue, Smart was a member of an NCAA Division II program that she said she grew up watching.
“Going through high school, I never thought that I’d be a college basketball player,” Smart said. “But I’m excited for it.”
Smart has the numbers now to warrant a college basketball future. She’s one of just two players in Class AA — Missoula Big Sky’s Kadynce Couture is the other — to average a double-double by scoring 17.4 points and grabbing 10.3 rebounds per game as the Falcons chase their fourth consecutive state-tournament trophy.
Her latest game has been her best so far. Smart had a 37-point, 13-rebound night in a win over Great Falls CMR on Friday, and she’s recorded double-doubles in each of her last three games and four of her last five.
She also accepted an offer to throw for the Yellowjackets’ track and field program, so she’ll be the rare dual-sport athlete at MSUB.
“She’s the true student-athlete,” Chase said. “She works so hard in the classroom. She brings it to the floor, to the soccer field, to the track. She worked her tail off, did what she was supposed to do, and people started to notice.”
There’s nothing flashy nor are there many can-you-believe-that moments in Smart’s double-double production. She merely puts her head down and digs deep.
