HELENA — Montana Tech’s males’s basketball group superior additional within the NAIA Nationwide Championship Match than every other in program historical past, and on Tuesday, Caleb Bellach, the Orediggers’ main scorer, was named to the NAIA’s All-America First Workforce.
Bellach was the lone Frontier Convention males’s basketball participant chosen to the three All-America groups, whereas MSU-Northern’s Jesse Keltner and Windfall’s Marcus Stephens represented the league on the honorable point out checklist.
Drew Wyman, of NAIA Nationwide Champion School of Idaho and a Nice Falls Excessive graduate, was named a second-team All-American on Tuesday, as was Arlee’s Phillip Malatare (Jap Oregon).
Bellach averaged 18.2 factors, 4.7 rebounds and 1.9 assists by way of the Frontier Match Championship sport by which the Orediggers gained for the second consecutive season.
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Bellach was injured in Tech’s nationwide match first-round sport in opposition to Westmont and didn’t play throughout the group’s run into the quarterfinals.
Bellach is now a two-time All-American and earned Frontier Participant of the 12 months honors in his second season as an Oredigger. He’s additionally simply the second participant in Tech’s program historical past to earn first-team accolades.
Montana Tech’s Caleb Bellach shoots a leap shot over Windfall’s Sam Vining throughout the Frontier Convention Match Championship sport in Nice Falls.
The 6-foot-7 junior additionally joined Tech’s 1,000-point membership this season and is at present tenth on this system’s all-time scoring checklist with 1,015 factors.
Keltner began all 30 video games for the Lights, averaging 13.7 factors, 7.3 rebounds and a pair of.3 assists per sport. Keltner averaged 16.5 factors per sport in his group’s closing six, serving to the Lights attain the Frontier Match semifinal sport the place they misplaced to Windfall within the closing seconds.
Keltner blocked 72 pictures to tempo the Frontier, and completed eighth within the NAIA in blocks per sport (2.4) and seventh in complete blocks.
MSU-Northern’s Jesse Keltner dunks and attracts the foul from Western’s Tanner Haverfield throughout a Frontier Convention playoff sport in Nice Falls.
Stephens began the ultimate 17 video games of the season for Windfall, averaging 20.2 factors, 5.5 rebounds and a pair of.9 assists per sport.
Had he performed in sufficient video games (60 % of group’s complete video games to qualify), Stephens would have paced the Frontier in scoring.
Stephens shot 39.2 % (40-for-102) from 3-point distance this season, making a season-high 5 in opposition to SAIT on Dec. 30.
On three separate events, Stephens knocked down 4 triples in a sport, together with in a season-high 36-point effort in opposition to Carroll on Feb. 18 and within the Frontier Match Championship sport in opposition to Tech.
Windfall’s Marcus Stephens sinks a three-pointer throughout the Frontier Convention Match semifinal sport in opposition to MSU-Northern in Nice Falls.
Drew Wyman, who gained the 2020-21 Montana Gatorade Participant of the 12 months for basketball, began all 37 video games and averaged 11.9 factors, 4.2 rebounds and 1.4 assists per sport for the Yotes.
Wyman grew to become the fifth second-team All-American in program historical past, and the primary because the 2014-15 season. He’s additionally the thirty second C of I males’s basketball participant all-time to earn All-America accolades, in accordance with a Yotes media launch.
C of I claimed the Cascade Collegiate Convention regular-season and match championships in 2022-23.
Arlee’s Phillip Malatare, a senior at Jap Oregon, was additionally chosen to the NAIA’s second-team All-America squad.
Malatare is now a two-time All-American after incomes honorable point out accolades a 12 months in the past.
Malatare averaged 18.3 factors, six rebounds and a pair of.7 assists per sport for an EOU squad that completed the season 21-11 and earned a nationwide match bid.
Malatare was additionally tabbed the CCC’s Participant of the 12 months.
E-mail Daniel Shepard at daniel.shepard@406mtsports.com or discover him on Twitter @IR_DanielS.