NOTES l LIVE STATS l LIVE VIDEO ($) l LIVE AUDIO
KANSAS CITY - The Carroll College men's basketball team returns to the Buffalo Funds NAIA Division I Men's Basketball Championship for the first time since 2011 and enters the bracket as a five-seed in the Liston Bracket.

The Saints (21-9) open the tournament Thursday at 1:15 p.m. MDT against Peru State (Neb.) (22-10) an at-large selection from the Heart of America Conference.

The two teams are programs on the rise. Carroll has improved their win total every season under third-year head coach Carson Cunningham and the same goes for the Bobcats under second-year head man Eric Behrens.

Peru makes its first post-season appearance since attending the NAIA DII tournament in 1996-97.

Corday Sims leads the Bobcats with 25.97 points per game, second in NAIA DI. He has 11 games with 30 or more points including a stretch of six-straight games kicked off with a huge 42-point game against MidAmerica Nazarene.

Carroll will lean on Zach Taylor, the Saints top scorer averages 17.36 points per game and scored a career-high 25 points against Rocky Mountain in the semifinals of the Frontier Playoffs.

The Saints finished second to LCSC in the Frontier standings and fell to the Warriors in the title game79-70 in Lewiston.

Peru finished second to MidAmerica Nazarene in the conference standings but fell to William Penn in the conference tournament.

Live stats and video is available from the NAIA and live audio is available on 94.9 FM ESPN Radio Helena and ESPNMontana.com.