KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Carroll College leads three Frontier Conference teams in the latest edition of the NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll, which was released Tuesday.
The Saints lost to Rocky Mountain College 78-66 on Jan. 3, just their second loss of the season, to slip from third to No. 4 in the rankings. Carroll (16-2 overall, 5-1 conference) has a two-game lead on the rest of the Frontier Conference, though, as five teams — Lewis-Clark State, Montana Tech, University of Providence, Rocky and Montana State-Northern — boast 3-3 conference records. Montana Western is 1-5.
Since its loss to Rocky, Carroll has back-to-back wins over Lewis-Clark and Western before heading into Tuesday’s home tilt with Tech.
Lewis-Clark tumbled from its previous top-10 ranking, losing three consecutive games to fall to No. 16 in this week’s poll. The Warriors lost at Providence and MSU-Northern before their home loss to Carroll. Providence, which currently owns a two-game skid, rose from 23rd to 22nd in the rankings. The Argos have recently lost to Northern and Tech.
Rocky is among the teams just outside the top 25 to receive votes.
After Tuesday’s Carroll-Tech matchup, the rest of the league returns to action on Thursday. Northern travels to Western, Rocky hosts Carroll and Providence is at Lewis-Clark.
LSU Alexandria (La.) is again the top-ranked team, receiving eight first-place votes. William Penn (Iowa) and Missouri Baptist, the lone undefeated team in the poll, round out the top three. The Master’s (Calif.) is fifth. Seventh-ranked Benedictine (Kan.) is the only other team to receive a first-place vote. The entire NAIA men’s basketball top 25 can be found here.
