Two Lights honored by the Frontier Conference

The Montana State University-Northern men's basketball team will find out tonight whether or not it goes to its third straight NAIA national tournament. But on Tuesday night, the Lights did receive some good news.

Senior Devin Jackson was named Frontier First-Team All-Conference for the third straight year, while junior Roshawn West was named Second-Team All-Conference as the league released its postseason awards. Jackson averaged just over 14 points and four assists per game this season, while West averaged nearly 11 points and shot nearly 40 percent from the 3-point-line in his first season at MSU-N.

Montana State University-Northern senior Devin Jackson, shooting, was named to the Frontier All-Conference Team for the third straight year.

As expected, Great Falls junior Marcel Towns earned Frontier Player of the Year honors, while UM-Western head coach Steve Keller was named Coach of the Year. Western's Kris Castro was honored with the Defensive Player of the Year Award, while Rocky Mountain College's Jeremy Nicholas was named Newcomer of the Year. Carroll College's Riley King was honored as Freshman of the Year and Lewis-Clark State's P.J. Bolte was named 6th-Man of the Year.

The first team had seven players from seven different schools, while LC State had the most players named all-conference with three. Northern, Western, Rocky and UGF head two each.

Tuesday night also saw the Battlin' Bears claim the league's postseason title and automatic bid to the national tournament as they clobbered Western 68-52 in Dillon. The Bears will make their first tourney appearance since winning the 2009 national championship.

West

Regular season champion LC State is a lock to receive an at-large bid to the national tournament, while the Bulldogs and Lights will also find out their fate this evening. The NAIA national tournament selection show is scheduled for 6 p.m. on http://www.naia.org.

Men's Frontier All-Conference Team

First Team

P.J. Bolte, Lewis-Clark State; Devin Jackson, MSU-Northern; Adam Greger, Montana Tech; Jake Owsley, UM-Western; Jeremy Nicholas, Rocky Mountain College; Marcel Townes, UGF; Jake Orchard, Westminster.

Second Team

Jacob Champoux, Lewis-Clark State; Danny Marshall, Lewis-Clark State; Roshawn West, MSU-Northern; Jordan Overstreet, UM-Western; Joel Barndt, Rocky Mountain College; James Holmes, UGF.