Mason Walters Becomes Part of Jamestown Men’s Basketball History

Named the program's third first team NAIA All-American

JAMESTOWN, N.D. — If you were watching Jamestown men’s basketball this season you probably saw forward Mason Walters and said wow is he ballin’.  And now for that great play is earning some hardware as one of 12 to land on the NAIA All-American team.

Walters is the 18th Jimmies players to be named an All-American and the third named to the first team. The sophomore lead the league in rebounds with 361 and doubles-doubles with 22 also recording a double-double average racking up 22 points and 11 and a half rebounds per game.

The Jamestown native came six points shy of breaking UJ’s single season scoring record of 687 points that was set back in 2007. After just two seasons, the Great Plains Athletic Conference player of the year  has already reached one thousand points.

To Walters, its shows anything can be done if you put the work in.

“Just seeing all the younger kids at the game that’ll be going to high school now or middle school. They can do something special to playing basketball,” Walter said. “Anything is possible if you work hard. I really believe that. For those kids to see that. It means a lot. My teammates put me in a good position. I think we’re all super unselfish and played a pretty big part in it. My teammates giving me the ball and putting me in good spots and the coaching staff as well giving me the opportunity to play here obviously.”

Walters was part of a Jimmies team that made quite the run at the NAIA men’s basketball tournament. After getting in as an at-large, made it all the way to the elite eight.

Before losing, UJ knocked off the three seed, Louisiana State Shreveport in the round of 32 and the seven seed, Faulkner in the round of 16 before the six seed, Shawnee State the eventual champion, handed them their defeat. In those games, Walters had 95 points and lead the team in scoring every game.

What fueled the run? Wanting to prove they belong.

“A couple games. We were right there and ended up getting the win,” Walters said. “We weren’t really sure if we were making nationals and just making it there, we just wanted to show we belong there. No one really expected us to be there for the games we were there. That fueled us to work hard to keep working hard and play together. We showed that on the court. We had a lot of young guys on the team. We had two freshman and two sophomores. A couple seniors and juniors but I think it just shows that we belong there and can do the same thing every year.”