TIFTON, Ga. - NAIA men's basketball finished up with Freed-Hardman winning the coveted red banner as national champions, but not all the season's best were for the Lions. Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, in its second year of NAIA competition, had the NAIA's top free throw shooter for 2025-26 in Matthew Mairena.

Mairena went 122-of-131 at the free throw stripe, good on 93.1% of his attempts. That was far and away the best among qualifiers in the NAIA. Second place went to Jalen Langsy of Northwestern (Iowa), who made 90.9% of his free throws. Langsy was 120-of-132 on free shots.

Only eight NAIA men's basketball players made 90% of their free throws, even those rounded up to 90%.

Mairena made his last 22 free throws of the season. In no game did he miss more than one chance at the stripe. 

Not only was Mairena's percentage high, but so were the amount of attempts he had. Only three of the top 25 free throw shooters percentage-wise went to the line more often than Mairena. Twenty of those players participated in more games.