Rocky Mountain College is in the national championship. The Billings school of roughly 800 students defeated higher-ranked Robert Morris College Monday night in the NAIA men’s basketball semifinals. Yesterday I wrote a blog discussing Rocky’s improbable run to the championship. At the time, I said the season would be a historical success even with a loss in the semifinals. But with the win, the Battlin’ Bears are truly a charming Montana basketball story.
Not only had the Bears never won a tournament game in the school’s history before winning four straight at this year’s tourney, they have also become the first team in Frontier Conference history to make it to the NAIA title game. Since the single-elimination tournament began in 1951, Rocky had reached the tourney only five times prior to this year, winning zero games.
The unseeded Bears face Missouri’s Columbia College, also unseeded, tonight at 7:50 MST. It’s the first-ever title matchup between two unseeded teams in the tournament. The game will be aired on CBS’ College Sports Television. I’m not sure exactly how or if we can get it on local cable, so I might just have to wait to read the results tomorrow. Either way, good luck Bears.