Roadrunners Named to All-Region List

By GARY STALLARD

AC Athletics

The 2025-2026 basketball season may have ended for Angelina College's men's basketball team, but the postseason honors are just beginning to arrive.

Roadrunner Clarence Payia made the 2^nd Team All-Region list, while Daemon Ely and Jordan Mathews picked up Honorable Mention All-Region honors.

Payia, a 6'6" sophomore from Beaumont United High School in Beaumont, Texas, led the team in scoring with 341 points in 31 games played (a 10.12 points-per-game average). Payia converted 37.5 percent of his three-point attempts and scored his season-high of 22 points in AC's quarterfinals loss to Tyler Junior College on March 12.

Payia also was selected for All-American JUCO Showcase held in Atlanta in July of 2025.

Ely, a 6'8" sophomore, is a product of Taos High School in Taos, New Mexico. He averaged 7.1 points and 6.5 rebounds per game while playing in all 32 AC games in 2025—2026, finishing the season with five double-doubles (scoring and rebounding). Ely earned Honorable Mention All-Region following his freshman season, when he led the Roadrunners to an Elite Eight appearance in the NJCAA Division I National Tournament in Hutchinson, Kansas

Sophomore Mathews (6'6"), from Peabody High School in Alexandria, Louisiana, scored 7.9 points and grabbed 4.3 rebounds per game, with his season high of 17 points coming against Paris Junior College and Kilgore College.

Mathews also earned Honorable Mention All-Region honors following his freshman campaign and was part of the Roadrunners' Elite Eight squad in the 2025 NJCAA Division I National Tournament in Hutchinson. Like Payia, he was selected for All-American JUCO Showcase held in Atlanta in July of 2025.

Payia, Ely and Mathews were part of a Roadrunner team ranked as the nation's No. 1 defensive team in 2025-2026 – the second consecutive season AC's men finished with the top ranking.

The email address for AC's Sports Information Director is gstallard@angelina.edu.