A buzzer-beating halfcourt shot by Montana State Billings stunned the Western men’s basketball, 79-78, sending Billings to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championship semifinals and the Vikings home Thursday afternoon at Saint Martin’s University in Lacey.
The shot, by MSU-Billings’ Jajuan Tot, was a shocking conclusion to a game that saw Western, leading by 10 points with less than three minutes left, suffer a late-game collapse to a team it had beaten twice, by 14 and 20 points respectively, in the regular season.
“It was a heartbreaking loss,” coach Tony Dominguez said. “We played well enough to win … We played hard.”
The loss probably ended the season for the Vikings, hoping for an at-large berth to the eight-team NCAA Division II West Region tournament for the first time since 2020. Ranked No. 8 in the region, a loss to the No. 10 Yellowjackets put a severe dent in that possibility.
“It’s going to be a long shot, but we’re not out of it,” said Dominguez, pointing to a loss by No. 9 Cal Poly Pomona that gives Western a shred of hope. At-large berths will be decided after conference title games Saturday night.
Western (19-10 overall, 11-7 GNAC) led the league in scoring and finished the regular season winning 11 of 13 games and poised for a postseason run.
The loss came despite a career-high performance by Western backup guard Aiden Rice, a true freshman who scored 22 points, including five 3-pointers. Rice started in place of standout guard Grant Kepley, the GNAC Freshman of the Year, out for the season with a broken thumb suffered in the next-to-last game of the regular season Feb. 27.
GNAC all-conference first-teamer Tijan Saine (21 points, four steals), scored what looked to be the game-winner with a mid-range jumper with 2.2 seconds left. MSU-Billings (21-11), the fifth seed, inbounded the ball and sharpshooter Tot launched a desperation shot from the right side of halfcourt that swished through at the buzzer.
The fourth-seeded Vikings seemed to have gotten the last word in a seesaw game with a 15-0 run midway through the second half that helped build their biggest lead at 73-59 with less than six minutes left. But the Yellowjackets kept coming back.
Western, the conference’s highest-scoring team in the regular-season, led for nearly all of the first half but couldn’t shake the Yellowjackets as the half ended with Western up, 37-35.
Western’s women win, 82-70
In the evening game, Western’s trademark defense and clutch shots down the stretch helped the Vikings beat Northwest Nazarene, 82-70, in the quarterfinals of the GNAC Championship tournament Thursday.
The Vikings (18-10 overall), two-time defending GNAC tournament champions, advance to play No. 1 seed Alaska Anchorage in Friday’s 5:15 p.m. semifinals.
In a tight game throughout, the tournament No. 4-seed Vikings trailed, 37-34, at the half and 56-55 entering the fourth quarter to Northwest Nazarene, the No. 5 seed.
Defensive stops and key baskets by Alyson Deaver, Mason Oberg and Demi Dykstra led the Vikings on an 11-2 run to make it 66-58 and break the game open with 5:47 left.
Western next faces its biggest challenge of the season in top seed Alaska Anchorage. The Vikings lost both games to the team this season, including a 72-40 pasting on Feb. 13, Western’s lowest-scoring game and worst defeat of the season.
With a No. 10 seed in the West Region, Western would all but have to win the tournament to earn a berth in the NCAA Division II tournament, a feat it has managed in 20 of the past 25 seasons.
One game down, two to go.
“We really don’t have anything to lose,” said Western coach Carmen Dolfo. “We’re going to go into this game and be loose and give it everything we have. We know that when we play together and play good defense, anything can happen.”
Western outscored Nazarene, 27-14, in the fourth quarter. The Vikings were led by Deaver’s 17 points and Olivia Wikstrom’s 15 points and game-high 11 rebounds. Dykstra also scored 15, Oberg had 13 and Maddy Grandbois 10 points as every starter scored in double digits.
Deaver all but took over the game in the clutch when she blocked a 3-point attempt with five minutes left that led to a three-point play to make it 71-62.
“It was super competitive, and every time we play NNU it is a back-and-forth, fast game,” said Wikstrom. “We just had to fight the whole time.”
The Vikings split the season series with Northwest Nazarene. The tournament game win was a bright spot in an unusual down year for Western, the 2022 NCAA Division II national runners-up, which suffered injuries to key incoming players before the season began.
Meri-Jo Borzilleri is a freelance journalist and former 20-year sports reporter.
