For the fourth consecutive week, the Lewis-Clark State College men’s basketball team was ranked fifth in the NAIA Coaches’ Top 25 poll, announced Tuesday by the national office.   

LCSC, which clinched the Frontier Conference regular season title last week, finished the regular season at 26-4 overall and 11-4 in league play.

With 242 points, the Warriors are just two points behind John Brown (Ark.) for fourth place in the poll. Columbia (Mo.) received 281 points to take first, Lee (Tenn.) garnered 272 and was second, and Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) was third with 263.

Montana Western, which took down the Warriors, 74-58, last week in Dillon, Mont., made the largest jump in the poll. The Bulldogs had a seven-spot improvement to No. 15. Fellow conference member MSU-Northern fell from No. 13 to No. 20, and Westminster received votes but remained outside the top 25.

Lewis-Clark State is preparing to host the semifinal round of the Frontier Conference Tournament on Saturday at 7 p.m. As the top seed in the six-team tournament, the Warriors will face the lowest seed to advance past the opening round which will be played on Wednesday evening.

The first round has sixth-seeded Great Falls traveling to third-seed MSU-Northern, and fifth-seeded Rocky Mountain traveling to fourth-seed Westminster.

The winner of the conference tournament receives an automatic bid to nationals, held March 13-19 in Kansas City, Mo. If the Warriors fall short of the tournament title, they’ll hope to receive an at-large berth to the national tournament. At-large bids and the 32-team tournament bracket will be released via a live video stream (www.naia.org) by the NAIA on March 6.

2012 - 13 NAIA Division I Men's Basketball Coaches' Top 25 Poll - No. 10

RANK	LAST WEEK	SCHOOL (1ST PLACE VOTES)	2012 – 13 RECORD	TOTAL POINTS
1	1	Columbia (Mo.) (11)	30-0	281
2	2	Lee (Tenn.)	28-1	272
3	4	Lindsey Wilson (Ky.)	26-3	263
4	3	John Brown (Ark.)	25-5	244
5	5	Lewis-Clark State (Idaho)	26-4	242
6	7	SAGU (Texas)	26-3	238
7	6	Cal State San Marcos	23-5	223
8	9	Oklahoma Baptist	24-6	221
9	10	Evangel (Mo.)	22-5	199
10	12	Pikeville (Ky.)	23-5	195
11	8	Westmont (Calif.)	24-6	194
12	11	William Carey (Miss.)	23-4	193
13	16	Xavier (La.)	24-6	160
14	17	Emmanuel (Ga.)	26-3	156
15	22	Montana Western	21-8	151
16	T13	Georgetown (Ky.)	21-7	149
17	18	Hope International (Calif.)	24-6	131
18	24	Martin Methodist (Tenn.)	20-9	123
19	21	Faulkner (Ala.)	25-5	110
20	T13	Montana State-Northern	22-8	91
21	19	LSU Shreveport (La.)	21-6	89
22	25	Culver-Stockton (Mo.)	22-7	79
22	23	Philander Smith (Ark.)	21-8	79
24	RV	Arizona Christian	18-8	78
25	15	Bethel (Tenn.)	24-6	69

Others receiving votes: Concordia (Calif.) 62; Westminster (Utah) 47; Science & Arts (Okla.) 37; St. Thomas (Texas) 33; MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) 29; Robert Morris (Ill.) 13; Campbellsville (Ky.) 6; Park (Mo.) 6.