COI battles Saints, Dawgs

Butte native Dougie Peoples and the defending NAIA national champion College of Idaho men’s basketball team will play the first two games of its title defense an hour away from the Mining City.

The Yotes will be in Helena Saturday to take on Carroll College in a 6 p.m. game at the P.E. Center. COI will then play Montana Western in a 5 p.m. game Monday at Straugh Gymnasium in Dillon.

COI dropped a 111-63 exhibition game Saturday at NCAA Division I University of Wyoming Saturday. Peoples led the Yotes offense with 22 points on 7-for-14 shooting. He sank three 3-pointers and grabbed four rebounds.

The 6-foot-5, 175-pound Peoples won the Montana Gatorade Player of the Year in 2023, the year he graduated from Butte Central. In March of 2022, Peoples hit a 27-foot shot at the buzzer to give the Maroons a 61-58 win over Lewistown in the Class A State championship game in Missoula. He scored 37 points in that title game.

During his prep career, Peoples scored more points than any high school boy in Mining City history. Without tossing in a single varsity point as a freshman, Peoples closed his career with 1,683 points for the Maroons. Only Butte High’s Lexie Nelson, who scored 1,696 from 2007 through 2010, scored more points playing high school basketball in Butte.

Peoples also owns BC’s single-game record for points scored in a game with 44.

In the 2025 NAIA national championship game, Peoples scored 21 points in 15 minutes of the Yotes’ 93-65 win over Oklahoma Wesleyan. He shot 5 for 7 from 3-point land in the March 25 game, which was played at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. The win capped a 35-2 campaign for the Yotes.

The College of Idaho will host the Taco Bell Shootout Nov. 7-8 in Caldwell.