KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Small College Basketball announced the top-50 watch list for the 2025-26 Bevo Francis Award on Sunday morning, which included Black Hills State redshirt sophomore guard Cam Lowe. Lowe remains 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-50 watch list, Lowe is again one of just two players representing the RMAC as he is joined by Colorado Mesa forward, Ty Allred.
 
Through 24 games, the reigning RMAC Freshman of the Year is averaging 17.6 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 1.1 steals per game. He enters next weekend's road contests with 20 double digit scoring performances this season and 18 of them within the last 20 games. He notched his 21^st 20-point game of his career and 11^th of the year, shooting the ball 8-of-11 from the field and 4-of-6 from 3-point range against UCCS on the road last weekend, helping lead the Yellow Jacket offense to one of their top team scoring performances in school history. In January he poured in a career-high 31 points at Colorado Mesa as he knocked down 12-of-15 shots from the field and 7-of-10 from 3-point range, helping the Green & Gold match a school record 19 3-pointers in the game. He entered yesterday's match-up with Regis ranking 12^th nationally in 3-point percentage, 30^th in total 3-pointers made, and 31^st in 3-pointers per game. Following Saturday's game against Regis he is now shooting 42.9 percent from beyond the arc, averaging 2.79 3-pointers per game as he is 67-of-156 on the year. He connected on his 100^th career 3-pointer in the first meeting of the season against the Rangers in early January, and he has since brought his career 3-point shooting up to 131-of-318 (41.2%). This year he is also among the top players in NCAA Division II in free throw percentage, shooting 57-of-63 from the charity stripe for a 90.5 percent clip. On the glass, he has secured one double-double this season with a 12-point, 11-rebound performance against New Mexico Highlands. On 16 occasions he has snagged six boards or more in a game. Helping facilitate the offense, he has dished out three or more assists 14 times, as the Yellow Jackets as a team are among the best passing teams in the country with four players averaging 2.0 or more assists per game in 2025-26. In Saturday's game against Regis, he matched a career-best six assists, a mark he has hit now twice this year. In two games this season, he has scored 20+ points and recorded 5+ rebounds and 5+ assists, doing so in both games against UCCS in 2025-26. Defensively, he recorded a career-best four steals twice this year against Minot State in November and Regis in January, and he matched his career-best of two blocked shots twice against MSU Moorhead and MSU Denver. In just his second season in Spearfish he has already amassed 893 career points, averaging 16.5 points per game in 54 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 10th 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.
 
A month from today 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.
 
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