By Jacob Norling
March 2, 2023
 
(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) For the first time since 2019, and for the final time in program history, Westmont Men's Basketball will compete in the NAIA National Tournament. On Thursday evening the NAIA announced the full 64-team bracket, which will send the 13th-seeded Warriors to Butte, Montana for the first and second round of the tournament.
 
"It's special," said Westmont head coach Landon Boucher, who is taking the Warriors to the tournament for the time at the helm. "Our team really rallied, and I'm proud of our guys for making this possible. How we ended the season says a lot about our group."
 
A month ago tonight Westmont fell to 5-8 in GSAC play, with the possibility of missing the GSAC Tournament coming into focus. However, the Warriors instead played their best basketball of the season, winning five games in a row to save their season.
 
Now, their final push has earned them an at-large berth into the NAIA National Tournament.
 
"Among everything else, I'm really happy for Cade Roth," reflected Boucher. "In 19-20, we were getting ready to go, and the next day everything got shut down when the pandemic started. We never got to take that GSAC Championship team to the tournament, but to get Cade into the tournament years later, it's special."
 
On March 7 at 7:00 p.m. MST the Warriors (17-11) will face the four-seeded Montana Tech Orediggers, the host of the tournament's first two rounds. The Orediggers earned an automatic bid into the NAIA National Tournament by winning the Frontier Tournament Championship, and will come into Tuesday night's matchup with an overall record of 26-4.
 
"Montana Tech deserves a lot of credit," offered Boucher. "Their record demands respect, and the style of basketball they play is top-tier. Anytime you go on the road in someone else's gym, especially in the postseason, it can be challenging.
 
"I'm excited that our guys get another week together to practice and then to be able to compete against another high-caliber team."
 
The winner of Tuesday's game will face the winner of the other Butte first round contest, which will be played between five-seeded Thomas More (Ky.) and 12-seeded Eastern Oregon.
 
The Thomas More Knights earned an at-large berth into the tournament after posting a regular season record of 22-8, while the Eastern Oregon Mountaineers earned a berth as the runner-up in the Cascade Conference Tournament. The Mountaineers, who enter the tournament with a record of 21-10 fell in the conference title game to the number one ranked in the nation, the College of Idaho Coyotes. 
 
If Westmont can win both their first and second round games in Butte, the Warriors would earn a trip to Kansas City, Missouri, to the NAIA National Championship final site. Westmont Men's Basketball has not advanced to the final site since 2015, when they ultimately lost the National Championship game to Dalton State (Ga.).
 
"Our guys earned this," added Boucher. "They displayed some real perseverance when the season looked pretty grim. To bounce back, and find themselves with this opportunity, it's very exciting.
 
"Our guys have been practicing this week not knowing what their future was. That's a weird feeling, but our guys continued to remain hopeful and continued getting better. It paid off, and now we get to go to Montana.
 
"Our guys are up to the challenge, and now it's time to get to work."
 
Links to live coverage for the entire NAIA National Tournament will be available on the Westmont Athletics website.