February 23, 2026
MADISON, S.D. – Junior guard
Brayden Pankonen of Dakota State (S.D.) was selected to the seventeenth and final edition of the 2025-26 Erck Hotels/Frontier Conference Men's Basketball Defensive Player-of-the-Week, announced by the conference office Monday.
Pankonen averaged 2.5 steals per game as Dakota State closed their regular season schedule with a 2-0 record. He stole the ball two times in Trojans' 84-74 win over Dickinson State (N.D.). He held the Blue Hawks' leading scorer to 12 points on 1-of-6 3-point field goal shooting and turned him three times.
Pankonen followed with three steals in Dakota State's 86-72 win over Bismarck State (N.D.).
Offensively, he averaged 18.5 points on his 12-of-19 field goals (63.2 percent) and hit 10-of-15 3-pointers during the weekend. He also averaged 4.0 assists per game.
These were done helping Dakota State propelling to their most wins (18) since 2016, most wins in the regular season since 2013, best regular season winning percentage since 2013, most regular season wins since 2013, most conference wins (13) in men's basketball history.
Pankonen ranks fourth in the Frontier Conference with 51 steals this season for the Trojans. He is currently fifth in the Trojan men's basketball record book in all-time steals with 124 prior to the conference postseason tournament.
Pankonen is also third all-time in the DSU men's basketball school record book with 183 3-point field goals made.
Brayden is a native of Dell Rapids, S.D., and majors in business finance at Dakota State University.
Dakota State will be No. 6 seed when the 2026 Frontier Conference Men's Basketball Postseason Tournament gets underway this weekend. The Trojans play the final quarterfinal match-up with No. 3 seed Carroll (Mont.) Saturday evening at 8:30 p.m. (Central Time)/7:30 p.m. (Mountain Time).
The postseason tournament continues Sunday with the semifinals and the championship game next Monday. All conference tournament contests are being held at Butte Civic Center in Butte, Mont.
