After miracle buzzer beater, Omari Nesbit and Rocky eye NAIA tournament run

BILLINGS — Omari Nesbit might attempt the shot 100 more times and miss them all. You could reasonably assume that, anyway.

Nevertheless, the day following his miracle 60-foot buzzer beater that gave Rocky Mountain College a 76-75 victory over Montana Tech in the semifinals of the Frontier Conference men's basketball tournament at the Civic Center in Butte, Nesbit wanted to see if he could duplicate his theatrics.

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Sure enough, during a shootaround hours before the Battlin' Bears were to face MSU-Northern on Monday for the Frontier crown, Nesbit was able to recreate his implausible stunt. Less pressure, of course. But still ...

"First try," Nesbit said with a smile.

The original shot was nothing short of astonishing. With 1.9 seconds on the clock and with Rocky trailing by Montana Tech by two points, Nesbit received an inbound pass from teammate Carter McCoy, maneuvered to his right, took one dribble, leaped off one foot — double clutched in the air — and lofted the ball from the opposite 3-point line and over the outstretched arms of the Orediggers' Hayden Diekhans.

No way it goes in, right? Don't forget this is March, a time when basketball prayers are answered.

The ball banked off the backboard and through the hoop, which sent Rocky into a frenzy and left the crowd at the Civic Center — on hand for what was in essence a home game for Montana Tech — in total shock.

The highlight went viral and was the No. 1 highlight of SportsCenter's top plays on ESPN that night.

But that's not at all how first-year Battlin' Bears coach Danny Neville set it up during a timeout moments prior.

"I didn't run the play right," Nesbit admitted before a Rocky practice in Billings on Thursday, four days after the fact. "It was drawn up for me to go for a deep ball and get a screen, but I saw that they were playing off me. So I was like, 'If I go deep I don't think I'm going to get good lift off of my shot.' So when I saw that, I just took the opportunity to go and take the ball myself."

Nesbit further described how it all unfolded.

"I tried to draw a foul," he explained. "That's why it looked like I double clutched it. I tried to draw a foul but he missed me, so I was able to get it up. I was able to see everything. At first it looked like it was going to just hit the backboard and not go in. Then it curved in mid air, and I was like, 'Oh, yeah, it's going in.'"

"It was a blessed moment," Nesbit added. "It's just an unreal feeling. I always dreamed of making a game-winning shot like that. It's still just crazy. But I'm trying to move past it so I can focus on these upcoming games."

Rocky went on to beat MSU-Northern in the Frontier title game 79-77 in overtime — incidentally having to survive a last-second heave by the Lights' Tracen Jilot — to capture its first conference tournament crown since 2014.

The Battlin' Bears are in the midst of an incredible season. They have now won 18 consecutive games and are 28-3 as they prepare for the NAIA national tournament.

By virtue of winning the Frontier regular-season title, Rocky had already clinched an automatic berth to the national tourney. But Nesbit said the ability to win the league tournament was at the top of the list of priorities.

"It meant everything," said Nesbit, a Sacramento, Calif., native who transferred to Rocky after spending the previous two seasons at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia, Calif. "Our plan was always to win a championship. Our preseason (schedule) was hard, our practices were hard, and we did all that to make a championship happen."

For the first time in program history, Rocky will host first- and second-round games of the NAIA national tournament. The Battlin' Bears will host three games at the Fortin Center in Billings on March 13 and 14.

There are 16 first- and second-round campus host sites across the country. The winner of each four-team site will advance to the NAIA National Championship Final Site at historic Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo., March 19-24.

Rocky hopes to contend for a national championship, which would be its first since the program won it unexpectedly in 2009. That banner still hangs proudly at the Fortin Center, a reminder of what can be accomplished.

"When I saw that we had (potentially) two home games I felt very confident," Nesbit said. "I think we're going to have big crowds, and I feel like Rocky is going to bring all their support. I'm very excited for those two games. I believe we can make a deep run."