HELENA, Mont. - After a 236-day wait, Basketball is officially back in the Captial City. The Carroll Men's Basketball team will begin their 2025-26 campaign tonight in Helena, hosting St. Thomas (Fla.) at the CC PE Center at 5 p.m.

It's been a long seven months - featuring plenty of change, but the Fighting Saints ('24-25 15-15) will look to build off last year's late-season success and make a return to the NAIA Men's Basketball Championship next Spring. Their first test comes in the form of the Bobcats ('24-25 10-16), making the 2,705 mile cross-country trek from Miami Gardens, Fla. for the first meeting between the two schools.

College Athletics is in a state of constant change, and Carroll College is no exception. The 2025 offseason brought its share of change to the Hilltop, but for the first time since the 2022-23 season, the Saints will have the same Head Coach on the sideline.

Dan Pearson enters his second season as Head Coach, bringing in an even 15-15 record. While the Saints saw some early struggles last season learning Pearson's system with several new faces, by the second-half of Frontier Conference play they were one of the league's best teams. Carroll finished Pearson's first season tied for second in the league standings, and were picked to finish in that exact same spot by the Frontier Coaches in the preseason poll released earlier this week.

Carroll returns the conference's leading scorer in Isaiah Crane (Portland, Ore. / R-SO), who was the first Freshman to lead the league in scoring, averaging 18.5 points per game. The First Team All-Conference and Frontier Freshman of the year will look to build off the strong start to his collegiate career, as Carroll looks for their first conference title since 2022.

Two other Freshman played a big part in the late-season success in 2024-25. Isaac Round (Northampton, England / SO) was named a Second Team All-Conference performer, averaging 10.5 ppg while leading the team in assists with 86. Kellen Harrison (Bozeman, Mont. / SO) led the league in three-point shooting percentage throughout conference play, while providing some of the Frontier's best defense as well. 

Pearson brought in a talented recruiting 2025 recruiting class that the Carroll staff believes has a chance to produce the same high-level production that the '24 freshmen provided. Local products Tevin Wetzel and Jaxan Lieberg, CMR standout Dean Blair, a pair of Washington prep stars in Drew Jones and Nate Christy, Oregon swingman Gavin Gross, and Turkish big man Karan Sahin will all wear the Pruple and Gold this season.

With the addition of six new Frontier members, the 2025-26 slate features 22 conference games, with each team playing home-and-home. The seven additional conference games makes for an abbreviated non-conference slate, with the first league game scheduled for mid-November in Billings.

Tonight's opponent, St. Thomas, snuck away with a tight 59-56 win over MSU-Northern last night in a neutral site matchup against MSU-Northern at the PE Center.

Tip-off for the season-opener is set for 5 p.m. A live stream can be found HERE, and live stats can be followed HERE.