BUTTE — As Montana Tech head men's basketball coach Adam Hiatt watched Rocky Mountain College's Omari Nesbit's 60-foot, last-gasp heave sail high over the Butte Civic Center court, there was a moment where he realized that the impossible might just happen.
"From my vantage point, where I was on the sideline, when it left his hand and I saw it about halfway to the basket, I thought, 'Oh, no,' because it looked like it was on line," said Hiatt.
It was, and that stunning shot from Nesbit propelled the Battlin' Bears into the Frontier Conference tournament championship — which they went on to win in overtime against MSU-Northern — was featured on ESPN's SportsCenter, and brought the Orediggers' tournament five-peat bid to an abrupt end in the semifinals.
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"There's not a whole lot to say about that game. You go into the locker room, what are you going to tell the guys?" said Hiatt. "It was an incredible shot, I've never seen a shot like that in my career."
Their Frontier run may have ended before they'd have liked, but the Orediggers (22-8) still earned an at-large bid to the NAIA men's basketball championship and advanced to the national tournament for the fifth straight season.
"These guys just have tremendous resiliency," said Hiatt. "We're 2-7 in games where we have guys not healthy or out of the lineup. We have faced much more adversity than we have in previous years and they've just stuck to it.
"They've come to compete every single day in practice, they want to compete. When we're healthy we're really good. We played a healthy game in December and beat the (Montana Grizzlies)."
The eighth-seeded Orediggers are in the Liston Quadrant and will travel to their pod in Bartlesville, Okla., where they'll take on No. 9 Oklahoma City in the first round on Friday at 7 p.m.. The winner of that game will face the winner of No. 1 Oklahoma Wesleyan/Southern University at New Orleans.
The Orediggers are looking to bounce back from a first-round exit against Southern Oregon last season, and Tech's two seniors — Hayden Diekhans and Camdyn LaRance — will get one final shot at making some noise in the national tournament.
"It's been pretty surreal, I'm extremely blessed," said LaRance. "It's been awesome to come back this last year with the guys, and I'm looking forward to closing this chapter on a good note."
The Tech men's last game was one they're ready to move past, but the Oredigger women's last game is one that will be remembered a long time as they toppled top-seeded Dakota State in the Frontier championship to capture their first league tournament title since 1983.
Tech (25-4) is hoping that the momentum and surge in confidence from that long-awaited victory will carry over into the national tournament. The fifth-seeded Orediggers are in the Duer Quadrant and will travel to their pod in Lewiston, Idaho, where they'll face No. 12 Nelson University (Texas). The winner of that game on Friday will face the winner of Lewis-Clark State/Hope International on Saturday.
"I think it was a big momentum gain for sure," senior Liv Wangerin said of Tech's tournament championship victory over Dakota State. "Ending on that big high, taking that into our next games will be huge for us."
This will be Tech's second straight national tournament trip and fourth ever. The Orediggers bowed out in the first round last season against Dakota State but most of their players now have experience in this tournament which should prove advantageous.
"I think it's really going to benefit us," said sophomore Halle Haber. "I think last time we were all a little scared and timid because we didn't know what to expect. But now we know what to do when we get there."
