Montana Tech wins NAIA national tournament opener

BUTTE — For the third year in a row, Montana Tech has won an NAIA national tournament game.

The third-seeded Orediggers took care of business against 14-seed Wayland Baptist, 75-67, in front of a packed crowd at the HPER Complex.

It was a tightly-contested matchup, but Tech found a way to survive and advance, and now is one of 32 teams left standing in the NAIA men’s basketball tournament.

The Diggers leaned on their past postseason experiences to overcome the Pioneers’ runs.

“That’s the one thing that’s a strength of ours, as I’ve mentioned before, the experience of our team. We’ve been in these moments before,” Tech head coach Adam Hiatt said.

Just over one year since tearing his ACL in the first minute of Tech’s opening-round tournament game, Caleb Bellach scored 14 points.

The emotions were much different this time around as Bellach got to experience playing a full national tournament game in Butte for the first time.

“I’ve been thinking about it for the past year,” Bellach said. “I was asking God why, well this is why. For nights like this.”

Asa Williams led Tech offensively with 18 points and Keeley Bake added nine points.

Wayland Baptist was hungry to pull off the upset, and nearly did enough to do so. It trailed by three points at halftime.

It was an off shooting night for the Diggers — making four of 21 attempts from beyond the arc — but they were able to overcome those woes.

“The way you lose in the tournament, is you have one cold night, and we did,” Hiatt said. “We did a lot of things to enable a team to be able to step up and beat us.”

“However, we learned a lot this year and this team has grown a lot. Our grit and our toughness really propelled us in that second half. We bent a little bit, but we didn’t break.”

Helping the Diggers hold off the Pioneers was a loud and proud crowd. The HPER was nearly at capacity and gave Tech a boost as the program improved its home record to 47-2 over the last three seasons.

“Everywhere you look, there’s not an open seat in the place. Everyone’s standing up, getting loud for you. Who wouldn’t want to play in a gym like that?” Bellach said.

“I feel like we have the best home court advantage in the nation.”

The turnaround is quick as Tech will host Lewis-Clark State on Saturday at 6 p.m.

A lot has changed for the Warriors since they took a 79-55 loss to the Diggers in Butte on Nov. 17. An 11-seed, L-C State defeated six-seed Hope International, 93-77, on Friday.

The Warriors have won seven of their last eight games.

“They’re a completely different team,” Hiatt said. “They’ve figured out their rotation. They have size in the middle, just like tonight, that can cause us some problems. They’re gritty defensively.”

The winner of Saturday’s matchup will advance to the NAIA National Championship Final Site in Kansas City, Missouri.

Tech reached the final site last season in the program’s deepest tournament run ever, and has been thinking about making it back ever since.

“We got one win to get back to Kansas City, and that’s what we’ve been working for all year,” Bellach said.

“We celebrate this one tonight a little bit, but we’re not finished yet.”