SPEARFISH, S.D. – The Black Hills State University men's basketball program has seen their fair share of talent come through Spearfish within the last decade and they are now seeing their development pay dividends as players are now competing professionally in different leagues around the world. With the regular season tipping off tomorrow, one of the season-opening games in the FIBA Europe Cup will be the first of two head-to-head match-ups between former Yellow Jackets as Fraser Malcolm (2015-19) leads the Caledonia Gladiators into a road game against Joel Scott's (2019-23) squad at MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg. Both Malcolm and Scott will be competing in Group H during the 2024-25 regular season as the pair looks to advance their teams into the second round and playoffs.
 
Malcolm enters his second year of a 2-year contract extension with the Caledonia Gladiators and will be in his sixth year professionally with the team in 2024-25. The native of Falkirk, Scotland returned home following an impressive 4-year career at BHSU where he appeared in 104 games, scored 1,288 points, grabbed 570 rebounds, and dished out 136 assists. After knocking down 131 career 3-pointers during his time in Spearfish, the sharpshooter has seen his deep threat capabilities carry over to the game across the pond, knocking down 136 3-pointers in his pro career at a 37.3 percent clip. During the 2023-24 season he recorded his best single season shooting percentage from beyond the arc, connecting on 35-of-85 from deep for a 41.2 3-point shooting percentage, helping lead Caledonia to a 23-13 record.
 
Scott enters his first year of professional basketball, signing with MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg this past July after a 5-year college career at Black Hills State and Colorado State. The Monument, Colorado, native left his mark on the Yellow Jacket program and helped elevate BHSU to new heights as the team went to back-to-back NCAA Division II Final Fours in 2022 and 2023. In 2023 he graduated as the school's all-time leading scorer, breaking a mark that stood for 47 years as his 2,471 points surpassed Kim Templeton's 2,180 from 1972-76. He is one of just three players in Yellow Jacket history to reach 2,000 career points. Additionally, he set the school record with a scoring average of 21.3 points per game in his career and was just one rebound shy of becoming the second player in program history to reach 1,000 career boards as he ended his career with 999.
 
Scott, the 2-time RMAC Player of the Year and the 2022-23 D2CCA National Player of the Year, then went on to play one season as a graduate student at CSU in 2023-24 where he was second on the team in scoring with 13.1 points per game, notching 471 points during his lone year in Fort Collins. He helped lead the Rams to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2022, as well as their first win in the big dance since 2012 when he recorded a double-double with 23 points and 11 rebounds in a 67-42 route of Virginia.
 
HEAD-TO-HEAD MATCH-UPS | GAME 1
MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg vs. Caledonia Gladiators
Date: Tuesday, October 8, at 11:30 a.m. MT
Location: Ludwigsburg, MHP Arena in Germany
 
HEAD-TO-HEAD MATCH-UPS | GAME 2
Caledonia Gladiators vs. MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg
Date: Wednesday, October 30, at 1:30 p.m. MT
Location: East Kilbride, Caledonia Gladiators Arena in Scotland
 
ABOUT THE FIBA EUROPE CUP
The FIBA Europe Cup was first introduced in 2015 and is FIBA's second-tier competition with over 100 clubs across almost 40 nations having taken part since the inaugural season. There have been eight different champions in eight completed seasons, offering the chance of European success to ambitious clubs. The league's regular season is played in October and November, second round is in December and January, and playoffs conclude the year in March.