BILLINGS, Mont. – The 15th-ranked Rocky Mountain College men's basketball team returns to action this weekend with important home Frontier Conference games. On Friday, the Battlin' Bears entertain Frontier leaders and 14th-ranked Carroll. The action continues on Saturday when Montana Tech comes to Billings.
Both games of the weekend will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Fortin Education Center.
SWX will broadcast both of this weekend's games live. SWX is available on Charter 503, over-the-air on 8.2 and on the Watch SWX app. Both games will also be available on the Rocky You Tube page and have live stats available. Links for the live stream and stats is available at GoBattlinBears.com/live.
Rocky enters the final six games of the regular season at 15-9 overall and having won six of their last nine games played. The Battlin' Bears are 6-6 in Frontier play to sit tied with MSU-Northern for fourth-place. They are 2.5 games behind Carroll for the top spot and will look to win the season series with the Saints on Friday.
With six games to play in the regular season and one guaranteed game in the Frontier Conference Tournament, Rocky is five wins shy of the seventh 20-win season since the 1993-94 campaign. Rocky hasn't had a 20-win season since they went 20-11 in 2014-15 for the programs third straight 20-win year.
Entering Friday, Rocky is averaging 83.13 points per game and they shoot 47.1 percent from the field. The team make 7.92 threes per outing while shooting 35.3 percent from deep. They are third in the Frontier by making 73.3 percent at the foul line. Rocky gets 40.50 rebounds per game and they are averaging 17.79 assists per game.
Defensively, the Battlin' Bears are allowing 72.58 points per game and opponents are shooting 42.8 percent. The team is 16th in the NAIA with 84 blocked shots and they are 14th by getting 8.79 steals per game.
Rocky's 1.37 assist-to-turnover ratio places the Battlin' Bears ninth in the NAIA and they rank 23rd with a 2.33 turnover margin.
Jared Samuelson averages 19.22 points per game to rank second in the Frontier and 18th in the NAIA. He has scored in double figures 21 times this season and has 11 games with at least 20 points. He ranks 19th nationally by shooting 56.3 percent from the field and 22nd at 85.1 percent at the foul line. Samuelson collects 7.70 rebounds per game to rank 34th in the NAIA.
Austin Payne has scored in double figures 12 times and he is second on the team in scoring at 11.8 points per game. Payne shoots 51.4 percent from the field and is at 39.1 percent from three with 36 makes.
Latrelle Franklin is third on the team in scoring at 10.1 points per contest. He leads the team with 111 assists – sixth in the NAIA – while his 4.63 assists per game is 13th nationally. Franklin is 11th in the nation with 46 steals and sits 20th by getting 1.92 steals per game.
Chad Kananen is 37th in the NAIA with a 2.25 assist-to-turnover ratio and is 39th with 57 made 3-pointers.
Colin May is sixth in the country with a 3.44 A/TO ratio.
Satchel McDonald ranks 36th in the NAIA with 36 steals.
