WHITEFISH — The celebration isn’t over yet for Carroll College.
Hours after winning the program’s second consecutive Frontier Conference tournament championship, the league announced its yearly awards, with the Fighting Saints snagging two of the top honors. Senior Ryan Imhoff was named player of the year, while head coach Carson Cunningham was selected as coach of the year after the duo led the Saints to a share of the regular season title. Carroll began the year 15-0, the best start in program history.
Imhoff led the league in scoring at 19.5 points per game and was fifth in field goal percentage at a shade over 52 percent. The Napa, Calif. native, who is listed as a guard, also swiped 80 steals to lead the Frontier, good for an average of 2.5 per contest. He was second in blocks per game (1.03) and fourth in assists (3.81) this season.
Imhoff scored a season-high 34 points against MSU-Northern in early December, and added season-bests of 14 rebounds, 10 assists and four blocks.
Cunningham continues an impressive turn-around of the Fighting Saints in his fifth season. Carroll has won consecutive Frontier Conference championships and earned a No. 1 seed in last year’s NAIA national tournament. The Saints have advanced to the final eight at the national tournament in each of the past two seasons. Carroll, 27-5 overall, awaits its national tournament fate when the NAIA selection show reveals its bracket on Wednesday.
MSU-Northern senior post Ryan Reeves was honored as the league’s defensive player of the year for the second straight season. Reeves led the Frontier with 8.71 rebounds per game and 3.36 blocks. He also shot a league-best 59 percent from the field for the Lights and was fifth in the league in scoring at 15.2 points per game.
Jared Samuelson, the former Montana Grizzly transfer, was named the newcomer of the year after scoring 18.8 points and hauling in 7.55 rebounds per game, each second-best in the conference. Providence’s Sergio Berkley earned the sixth man of the year award after averages of 11 points, 1.7 assists, 1.6 rebounds and just under one steal per game.
Lewis-Clark State’s Damek Mitchell was named freshman of the year.
The complete list of all-conference selections can be found below.
2017-18 Frontier Conference Men’s Basketball
Season awards
Player of the year: Ryan Imhoff, Carroll College
Coach of the year: Carson Cunningham, Carroll College
Defensive player of the year: Ryan Reeves, MSU-Northern
Newcomer of the year: Jared Samuelson, Rocky Mountain College
Sixth man of the year: Sergio Berkley, University of Providence
Freshman of the year: Damek Mitchell, Lewis-Clark State College
First-team all-conference
Ryan Imhoff, Carroll College
Race Martin, Lewis-Clark State College
Ryan Reeves, MSU-Northern
Dom Robinson, Montana Western
Zaccheus Darko-Kelly, Montana Western
Jared Samuelson, Rocky Mountain College
Second-team all-conference
Match Burnham, Carroll College
Andrew McCowan, Lewis-Clark State College
Chris O’Neill, Montana Tech
Brandon Jones, Montana Western
DeShaun Rice, University of Providence
Honorable mention all-conference
Matt Wyman, Carroll College
Ife Kalejaiye, Carroll College
Trea Thomas, Lewis-Clark State College
Charles Porter, MSU-Northern
Kooper Kidgell, Montana Western
Craig Wilmore, Rocky Mountain College
Sergio Berkley, University of Providence
Steven Daho-Clarke, University of Providence
