By Bruce Sayler
The Butte Civic Center served a double scoop in treats Sunday to basketball fans following the Montana Tech teams.
It came with toppings and some nuttiness.
The NAIA 15th-ranked Oredigger women got a 78-74 semifinal-round win over rival Montana Western to secure a spot in Monday’s 5 p.m. championship game versus Dakota State as the Frontier Conference Tournament heads into its fourth day and finals for this year’s spectacle.
Montana Tech will be seeking its first conference women’s basketball championship since 1983.
Then, what you would think couldn’t happen did happen and a” million-to-one-shot” by a Rocky Mountain at the final buzzer star sank the Oredigger men 75-73 in their semifinal to advance to the men’s title game.
“A 65-foot, double-clutch, 65-foot hook shot off the backboard,” is how Montana Tech head coach Adam Hiatt described the launch by the Bears’ Omari Nesbit as the clocked blinked to zeroes. “It was a million-to-one shot and I’ll never see it again in my life. We had a chance to win it at the end and we (seemingly) did.”
Hayden Diekhans had given Montana Tech a 75-73 edge when he made two free throws with 1.9 seconds showing on the clock after being fouled by Nesbit. Diekhans had gathered an inbounds pass from Karson Peffer following Nesbit’s draining of two foul shots that had tied the score 73-all. Diekhans drove the length of the court and crashed to the basket on a baseline jumper as Nesbit made contact and sent him to the charity stripe.
Diekhans caged both freebies and Carter McCoy threw in the inbounds for Rocky Mountain from under the basket. Diekhans wrapped up Nesbit in tight coverage.
“The best defensive player ever in the Frontier Conference,” Hiatt labeled Diekhans.
Nesbit moved on a dribble and fired away before reaching any floor logos, let alone the midcourt stripe.
“It looked like it curved in the air,” Nesbit said about the flight of the ball.
The shot bounced off the backboard and through the hoop. The officials huddled at the scorers’ table to confirm the shot was cast before the buzzer sounded.
“I knew it was,” Nesbit said. “I saw the red light come on (on the backboard) when it was in the air.”
“That’s a crazy shot,” Sherman Royal III said, shaking his head, commenting on his fellow Bear’s basket at the end, and repeated, “that’s a crazy shot.”
Nesbit, a 6-foot-1 senior guard, finished with 26 points while supported by Royce Robinson’s 15 points and Jacob Bilodeau’s 11 as Rocky Mountain improved to 26-4 for the season. The Bears will play Montana State-Northern, an 80-76 semifinal-round winner over Carroll, in Monday’s 7:30 championship game.
“We came so far to lose that way,” Nesbit said about his thoughts awaiting McCoy’s inbounds pass. “I just had to make the shot.”
Danny Neville, the Frontier Conference Coach of the Year in his first season at the Bears’ helm said noted it was the team’s 17th straight win.
“And I’ve not felt one time we’ve been complacent,” he said.
Montana Tech is 22-7 and hoping for an at-large berth to the National Tournament. Rocky Mountain has a guaranteed slot with its regular-season title in the conference.
Asher Williams had 21 points for the Orediggers and Diekhans had 17 while Camdyn LaRance finished with 10, including three important free throws in the last 50 seconds. Williams’ role increased when leading scorer Brayden Koch went down with a leg injury with 3 minutes, 34 seconds left in the first half. He didn’t return to the game and was relegated to crutches.
“We played underhanded and still had a chance to win it,” Hiatt said. “Asher is a future Player of the Year in the Frontier Conference. “He is super steady playing his game and doesn’t get sped up.”
Williams is a 6-6 freshman guard and was Co-Sixth Man of the Year in the league this season.
“It feels like a title game,” Neville commented about the crowd and the intensity of play. “Everybody who bought a ticket got their money’s worth.”
The Montana Tech women enjoyed a little more success with their hard-earned win over Montana Western. The Orediggers take a 24-4 mark into their title game after protecting a small lead against the Bulldogs for most of their game. It worked for them.
A clutch 3-pointer by Avery Carlson and two free throws made by Brooke Badovinac in the waning seconds provided enough margin.
“Our bench was huge tonight,” Montana Tech head coach Jeff Graham said. “We were able to play nine kids, which kept it a lot looser.”
It was the Oredigger way of battling nerves through t he intensity. The last few tickets were most worrisome as Montana Western continued a torrid rally after having trailed Montana Tech by as many as 15 points earlier in the second half.
“The seconds flew at the end,” Oredigger 6-0 senior Hadley Humphreys said, “but I was afraid they were going to take it.”
A 10-point fourth quarter by 5-11 sophomore Bailee Sayler (hard to believe, but she gets zero of her basketball talent from her sports columnist grand-uncle) led the Bulldogs’ comeback.
“She’s a great kid, a game-changer,” Graham said. “Having people to stop Sayler was huge.”
The reigning Frontier Conference Sixth Woman of the Year still finished with 18 points and seven rebounds.
The third quarter ended with Montana Tech controlling a 63-53 margin and Badovinac holding the ball on a recovery on the floor as time funneled off the scoreboard. Then, Montana Western sliced six points off the deficit as two free throws by Tayva Phillips preceded two consecutive scoring drives by Sayler.
It was close the rest of the way. Both teams brought their hearts, souls and wills to the fight.
“It was fun,” Graham said. “We had a big first half.”
The Bulldogs caught the Orediggers at 70-all on a basket by Sayler after Isabelle Lund sank two charity tosses. Halle Haber answered for Montana Tech with a rebound she shot back in for a basket and drew a foul, meshing the ensuing freebie for a three-point play.
Sayler made two free throws and then Carlson drilled her big 3-pointer for a 76-72 difference. Ava Bellach, daughter of former Oredigger shooting great Jeff Bellach, threw in a runner for the Bulldogs. The teams traded missed opportunities for most of the next two minutes until Badovinac canned two free throws with 8 seconds left.
A Montana Western scramble as the ticks evaporated failed to produce any points and Montana Tech had the win.
“It was super exciting,” Butte Central career scoring record-holder Badovinac said. “Having our crowd show up was huge. We our crowd goes crazy, we go crazy. Growing up in Butte, this was a dream.
Humphreys said she had similar sentiments.
“I dreamed of this when I was a little kid (in Blackfoot, Idaho),” she said, “playing in a game like this in a place like this.”
The Orediggers are looking for punctuation along with success on Monday.
“When you look at this team the last couple of years, I don’t think many people thought we’d be here,” Badovinac said.
“We came up short in conference by one game,” Graham said, “but we’ll try to win the tournament.”
Four scorers notched double figures for the Orediggers as Haber finished with 18 points, Badovinac and Humphreys with 15 apiece and Liz Wangerin with 10. Four Bulldogs also tallied double numbers, led by Sayler’s 18 and 15 from Lund, 13 from Bellach and 11 from Phillips.
Montana Western had a 13-14 record.
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