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COLORADO SPRINGS -- Cowley College of Region 6 is the top team in the first NJCAA Men's Division I Basketball Top 25 of the 2008-2009 season.

The Tigers received a total of 296 poll points and seven of 16 first-place votes to claim the No. 1 spot.

University of Arkansas-Fort Smith of Region 2 was a close second this week with 293 total poll points and four first-place votes.

Region 8's Chipola College (Fla.), Indian Hills Community College (Iowa) of Region 11 and Southeastern Illinois College of Region 24 round out this week's top five.

Cowley is off to a 6-0 start having defeated the likes of Colorado Northwestern, Sterling College JV, Friends University JV, Northern Oklahoma-Tonkawa and Otero JC (Colo.).

The Tigers are currently the seventh-best defensive team in the country, allowing just 55 points a game from their opponents. Forward Jack Crowder leads Cowley, and ranks 21st in the nation, in scoring with 21.8 points per game.

Arkansas-Fort Smith has gotten off to a 5-0 mark thus far. Their first three games were a bit one-sided as the Lions put up over 100 points in victories over International Sports Federation, Shorter College and Arkansas Baptist College. The Lions last two victories were quite impressive. Fort Smith defeated a very solid Kilgore College (Texas) squad 68-60 on Nov. 8 and pulled out a 108-100 overtime win over Seminole State (Okla.) on Nov. 13.

The Lions rank sixth in the NJCAA with 105 points per game. Preseason first-team All-American Jared Cunningham, along with teammates Jenirro Bush and LaDustin Williams are averaging more than 14 points per game for the Lions thus far.

Ranked second in the preseason, Chipola suffered an early-season setback on Nov. 1 when it fell 78-71 at Three Rivers (Mo.). On Nov. 3, however, it knocked off preseason No. 1 Indian Hills on the road by a 63-62 score. The Indians also have defeated No. 19 Mineral Area (Mo.), Chattahoochee Valley (Tenn.), Atlanta Metropolitan (Ga.) and Georgia Perimeter.

Casey Mitchell, a preseason honorable mention All-American, is the leading scorer thus far for Chipola, averaging 19.1 points per game along with 2.3 assists.

After its setback against Chipola, Indian Hills has managed to win five straight contests to post a 6-1 record thus far. Their most recent victory came on Nov. 15 when they took down Kennedy-King (Ill.) 85-59 in its IHCC Klyn Automotive Classic. Pre-season All-Americans Dwight Buycks and Dwight Hardy scored 22 and 21 points, respectively, in the win.

The Falcons of Southeastern Illinois have opened their season with a 5-0 record with victories over Lindsey Wilson, Three Rivers (Mo.), State Fair (Mo.), Allegany College (Md.) and Simmons College (Ky.). Their last two victories came at a tournament hosted by No. 14 Salt Lake Community College (Utah) last weekend.