USCAA Names Jalen Smith a First Team All-American

By: Frank Maira, Assistant Director of Athletics/Sports Information Director

UNIONTOWN, Pa. – The United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) released its men's basketball All-Americans on Tuesday night at its end-of-year banquet and the accolades continued to roll in for Penn State Mont Alto's Jalen Smith (Ranson, W. Va. / Jefferson) who was selected to the First Team.

The junior guard paced Mont Alto in scoring at 20.6 points per game and collected a team-high 129 rebounds. Smith was also a two-time PSUAC Player of the Week and was recently named to the All-PSUAC First Team. He really heated up in the final two months of the season shooting a season-best 54.3 percent from the field in January while combining to average 22.7 points per game. The Jefferson High product produced four double-doubles and poured in a career-high 40 points against Penn State Lehigh Valley on Feb. 6. Smith knocked 38.1 percent of his shots from beyond the arc, while his 61 three-pointers this season was a team-best and ranked eighth in the USCAA. He will enter his senior season 14-points shy of surpassing 1000 during his career at Mont Alto.

Smith made it five-straight years that the men's basketball program had a student-athlete earn All-American honors. Mont Alto finished the 2017-18 season with a 12-13 overall record.