BILLINGS, Mont. – The Rocky Mountain College men's basketball team begins the Frontier Conference Tournament on Tuesday with a quarterfinal game against Montana State University-Northern. The game begins at 7 p.m. from Armory Gymnasium.
Game coverage, including links for live video and live stats, is available by visiting
GoBattlinBears.com/mbbpostseason.
The other quarterfinal games of the Frontier Conference Tournament has No. 2-seed Montana Western hosting No. 7-seed Montana Tech. The No. 3-seed Lewis-Clark State is hosting No. 6-seed Providence. The semifinals will be played on Friday with No. 1-seed Carroll hosting the lowest remaining seed after the quarterfinals and the other two winners playing at the home of the highest remaining seed. The two semifinal winners will play for the title on March 5.
Rocky and MSU-Northern will meet in the quarterfinals of the Frontier Tournament for the third straight year on Tuesday with the team splitting the past two. This is the second straight year the game will be played in Havre after the Lights 71-54 win in 2017. Since 2004, Rocky is 12-12 in the Frontier Tournament and they won the title in 2013 and 2014. During that time, Northern is 4-2 against the Battlin' Bears in the tournament and 2-0 in Havre.
Rocky will enter Tuesday's game after finishing 17-13 in the regular season. They earned the No. 5 seed in the conference tournament by posting an 8-10 record in conference play. The Battlin' Bears have dropped three straight entering the postseason and they are 8-5 on the road.
The Battlin' Bears are currently scoring 80.87 points per game to rank fourth in the Frontier. The team shoots 46.5 percent from the field and 34.0 percent from beyond the arc. Rocky makes 7.50 threes per game while getting 16.80 assists per game. The team is seventh in the NAIA with 504 total assists and ninth with a 1.32 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Rocky opponents average 73.27 points per game and shoot 44.0 percent from the floor. Rocky is second in the Frontier by collecting 39.90 rebounds per game. The team averages 7.97 steals and 3.27 blocked shots per contest. Their 239 total steals ranks 18th in the country.
Jared Samuelson leads Rocky and is second in the Frontier in scoring at 18.66 points per game. That average is 27th in the NAIA while his 541 total points rank 15th. Samuelson is 22nd in the nation by shooting 55.7 percent from the floor and 23rd at 84.1 percent at the foul line.
Austin Payne is second on the team in scoring at 10.1 points per game. He has scored in double figures 12 times and has three games with at least 20 points. Payne shoots 48.3 percent and has 39 made 3-pointers at a 36.4 percent clip.
Chad Kananen averages 8.5 points per game and ranks fifth in the Frontier by making 2.23 threes per game. He shoots 38.7 percent from beyond the arc to account for 67 made triples that rank 47th in the country. He also ranks 42nd in the NAIA with a 2.11 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Latrelle Franklin leads the teams and ranks 15th in the NAIA with 121 total assists. His 4.17 assists per game are 22nd in the nation. He sits 19th nationally with 51 steals and 23rd at 1.76 steals per game.
