KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Small College Basketball announced the top-100 watch list for the 2025-26 Bevo Francis Award on Thursday morning, which included Black Hills State redshirt sophomore guard Cam Lowe. Lowe becomes just the second player in program history to appear on the watch list for one small college basketball's most prestigious awards, joining Joel Scott who was a finalist in both 2022 and 2023. On the 2025-26 top-100 watch list, Lowe is one of just two players representing the RMAC as he is joined by Colorado Mesa forward, Ty Allred.
 
Through 14 games the reigning RMAC Freshman of the Year is averaging 18.2 points, 6.6 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 1.2 steals per game. Over the course of the last ten games, he has shot the ball 75-of-140 (53.6%) from the field, 34-of-72 (47.2%) from 3-point range, and 22-of-24 (91.7%) at the free throw line. He enters Thursday's game with 12 double digit scoring performances this season and a streak of ten straight. He notched his 17^th 20-point game of his career, shooting the ball 8-of-12 from the field, 4-of-6 from 3-point range, and 3-of-3 from the free throw line against MSU Denver last Saturday. Two nights earlier he posted a season-high performance of 27 points against Regis as he shot the ball 10-of-16 from the field and 7-of-12 from 3-point range. He has connected on three or more 3-pointers seven times this year and in seven of the last ten games. Nationally in NCAA Division II this season he currently ranks 35^th in 3-pointers per game (2.86) and 39^th in 3-point percentage (40.8%). He connected on his 100^th career 3-pointer last Thursday against the Rangers, and on Saturday brought his career 3-point shooting up to 104-of-260 (40.0%). He grabbed a season-best nine rebounds against UMary in November, one of eight games that he has secured seven or more boards. This year he is among the top players in NCAA Division II in free throw percentage, shooting 33-of-36 from the charity stripe for a 91.7 percent clip, and is 41^st in defensive rebounds per game (6.14). He is the active career leader (minimum 20 games played) in points per game in the RMAC with a 16.5 career scoring average, is the leagues' top free throw shooter and field goal percentage (minimum 20 games) leader as he is 85.9 percent from the charity stripe and 49.3 percent from the field in his career, is tied for the lead in career 3-pointers made per game (minimum 20 games) 2.36 per contest, and is second in career rebounds (minimum 20 games) with an average of 7.45 boards per game. In just a year and a half in Spearfish he has already amassed 726 career points, averaging 16.5 points per game in 44 career games played.
 
The Clarence "Bevo" Francis Award is presented annually to the player who has had the finest overall season within Small College Basketball. Considerations will be season statistics and individual achievements, awards, personal character and team achievements. This is an incredibly prestigious award, as this award will only be given to one player within Small College Basketball per season.
 
2026 marks the ninth year of the Bevo Francis Award. Past winners include Dominez Burnett of Davenport University in 2016, Justin Pitts of Northwest Missouri State University in 2017, Emanuel Terry of Lincoln Memorial University in 2018, Aston Francis of Wheaton College in 2019, Kyle Mangas of Indiana Wesleyan University in 2020 and Trevor Hudgins of Northwest Missouri State University in 2022. In 2023, RJ Sunahara of Nova Southeastern was named the winner, while in 2024 Elijah Malone of Grace College received the honor. Last year MJ Iraldi was named the 2025 winner. The award was not presented during the 2021 season.
 
On February 15th, the list will be reduced to the Top 50 players. One month later on March 15th, the Top 25 players will be announced. On April 4th, the finalists of this year's award will be announced, followed by the Bevo Francis Award winner being crowned on April 6th.
 
The Bevo Francis Awards Committee consists of the following coaches: Gary Stewart - Stevenson (Md.), Chris Briggs - Georgetown (Ky.), Mike Donnelly – Florida Southern, Richard Westerlund – Great Lakes Christian, Mark Vanderslice – USC – Aiken, Matt O'Brien – Southwestern (KS), Chris Wright – Langston (OK), Justin Leslie – Midwestern State, Raul Placeres – Maryville College (TN), Chris Martin – Loras (IA), John Lamanna – Whitman (WA), Brian Miller – MSOE, Justin Downer – Point Loma Nazarene, Matt Capell – STAC, Scott Moore – Grace, Keven Bradley – Hillsdale, Mark Rutledge – Southern Arkansas, Chase Tiechmann – Georgia Gwinnett, Mick Hedgepeth – Alabama Huntsville.