HELENA — Former Carroll College basketball players Alejandro Santos Piqueras (who also goes by Alex Santos) and Match Burnham will continue their careers overseas at the professional level.
According to a media release for Carroll, Santos has verbally committed to play professionally with ZBK Madrid.
A native of Madrid, the 6-foot-8 Spaniard showed flashes of brilliance throughout his career at Carroll before an injury cut short his final collegiate campaign. During his junior season, Santos finished with a near-triple-double of eight points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists against Montana Western in the Frontier Conference postseason championship to highlight one of his top performances.
“I’m very grateful for the opportunity Zentro Basket is giving me,” Santos said. “ZBK is a club from Madrid that has been growing and has ambitious goals of continuing to do so. My family and I believe these goals and their confidence in me are ideal to get the wheel rolling and I’m very happy that it’s now official.”
Burnham, meanwhile, has signed a contract to play professional basketball in the United Kingdom. The former first-team all-American forward will playing with the Reading Rockets, a Division 1 team of the National Basketball League in England. It’s considered the second-highest league in the UK behind the British Basketball League.
Burnham, a Spangle, Washington native, helped guide the Saints to a runner-up finish in the NAIA men’s basketball national championship this past season. He finished his career tied for No. 6 on the all-time scoring list, recording 1,834 points. He was named the Frontier Conference player of the year during the 2018-19 season.
“I’m really grateful for the opportunity to continue to play basketball and see the world,” Burnham said. “No better time than while I’m young and still able to hoop.”
(Editor’s note: Portions of Carroll College media releases were used in this report.)
