BILLINGS, Mont. – The Rocky Mountain College men's basketball team returns to the Fortin Education Center this week to host a pair of Frontier Conference games. The Battlin' Bears play Montana State – Northern on Thursday before Providence comes to town on Saturday. Both games will tip at 7:30 p.m.

With a month of regular season games to play, Rocky is 13-8 overall. They are currently tied for fourth in the Frontier Conference with a 5-5 mark in conference games. The Battlin' Bears have won four of their last six outings and have gone 5-1 at home this season. With eight conference games to play, Rocky is two games behind Montana Western for the Frontier lead and one game out of second.

Rocky is coming off a 1-1 weekend that saw them win at Montana Tech, 68-65, last Friday. They then dropped a 90-63 decision at then-No. 10 Carroll on Saturday. 

Rocky is averaging 82.91 points per game this season and they shoot 46.6 percent from the field. The team make 8.05 threes per outing while shooting 36.1 percent from deep. They are third in the Frontier by making 73.0 percent at the foul line. Rocky gets 40.48 rebounds per game and they are averaging 17.48 assists per game.

Defensively, the Battlin' Bears are allowing 73.29 points per game and opponents are shooting 42.7 percent. The team is 16th in the NAIA with 78 blocked shots and they are 20th by getting 8.43 steals per game.

Jared Samuelson is second in the Frontier and 20th in the NAIA by scoring 19.35 points per game. He shoots 56.2 percent from the field – 22nd in the NAIA – while ranking ninth by hitting 88.0 percent at the foul line. Samuelson has scored in double figures 18 times – including 15 straight – and he has nine games with at least 20 points.

Austin Payne is second on the team in scoring at 12.3 points per game. He has scored in double figures 11 times and shoots 51.3 percent from the field. Payne has 33 made 3-pointers while shooting 38.8 percent from beyond the arc.

Latrelle Franklin scores 10.7 points per game with 10 games in double digits. He is seventh in the NAIA with 102 total assists and ninth at 4.86 assists per game. Franklin also ranks 13th in the country with 41 total steals and 22nd with his 1.95 steals per game.

Collin May has a 3.11 assist-to-turnover ratio to tank 13th in the NAIA. Chad Kananen is 32nd in that category at 2.38.

Satchel McDonald has 33 total steals to rank 40th in the nation. His 1.57 steals per game is good for 46th nationally.