One point separated Mohawk and Humber as Aminu Bello drove the lane for the Mountaineers with the clock winding down. Humber, determined to win a fourth straight Ontario Colleges’ Athletic Association gold medal in men’s basketball, had climbed back from a fourth-quarter deficit to trail by one in the final seconds. That is when Mohawk’s leading scorer took it upon himself to preserve the lead and break the Hawks streak, ending a 40 year gold medal drought for the long-suffering Mountaineer faithful.

“I just had a good streak of games,” said the player of the game, Bello. “I was playing with confidence and it was just something that I wanted to do. It’s my final year so I wanted to put it all out on the floor.”

Bello tossed up a runner in the lane to give the Mountaineers a three-point lead with 17 seconds left in the championship game. Mohawk then employed a strategy of fouling the Hawks’ shooters to not allow any good looks at a three-point tying attempt. As the buzzer sounded, Humber failed to get off a quality shot and the Mountaineers completed the upset 89-86.

“It feels great,” said Bello. “It’s something we were focused on the whole year. It feels great to actually have it in your hands.”

Bello scored a game high 33 points to help his team take home the gold, Mohawk’s first medal in hoops since a 1999 bronze. The medal marks the first for head coach Brian Jonker, who is in his seventh year as Mohawk’s bench boss.

“It’s hard to put into words,” said Jonker after Mohawk’s first practice following their return from Ottawa. “It’s been an unbelievable 72 hours. The amount of people that I’ve spoken to and have contacted me, former players, people who have played here and people who have played for me and people who I don’t even know very well from many many years ago – it’s been incredible.”

Jonker said the game plan for Mohawk, who were coming off an 87-86 win over the Hawks in their final regular season game, was to play a running style to not allow Humber to set their stringent defence.

“We knew that if it became a half-court game, we would probably be in trouble.”

Mohawk was certainly the aggressor in the game, driving to the basket and not settling for outside jumpers. Humber’s outside shooting, especially from behind the arc, allowed them to build a lead in the first quarter. The plan for Mohawk was to allow Humber’s guard, Mark Perrin, to shoot three-point shots as he was a 16 per cent shooter from long range this season. Perrin and Mike Dvorak made their shots early but Jonker said that might have given them “a false confidence.”

The high shooting percentage eventually averaged out for the Hawks and their attempts away from the basket stopped falling, allowing Mohawk to comeback and take the lead.

“We did a pretty intense scout on some of the things that they did,” said Bello. “We were able to pinpoint some of their key plays and shut them down in terms of what they don’t like doing. So, that’s why we pushed the ball and got them out of their comfort zone and that’s how we were able to get success against them.”

Finding themselves down by nine, Bello flipped a switch and put the scoring load on his shoulders to sink three consecutive three-point shots and was noticeably fired up when he just about put his fist through his chest as he ran back on defence.

“I got into a little zone in that game,” said Bello. “My first couple buckets – it felt really great after them. So, I knew everything I put up there at the rim was going in. It was just one of those nights.”

The backcourt for Mohawk was a big reason for Mohawk’s victory. Bello’s fellow guard and teammate, Manny Campbell, was named Most Valuable Player for the tournament. The fourth-year guard led the OCAA is assists this season (4.6 per game) and led Mohawk’s fast-break attacks against Humber while contributing 16 points and six assists in the final.

“(Campbell) controlled everything that went on,” said Jonker. “He didn’t come off the floor for even a second in any meaningful moment.”

Mohawk’s starters played the bulk of the minutes in the championship game with an important eight-point contribution from Tanner Lane off the bench. The frontcourt for the Mountaineers did their part in keeping the Hawks from penetrating the lane and forcing them to take outside shots. Mohawk’s center, Taylor Dowhaniuk, led the OCAA in blocks this season (2.6 per game) and was fifth in rebounding (8.8 per game). Dowhaniuk came up with four blocks and seven rebounds against Humber. Andrew Cicuttini dropped in 14 points while grabbing nine rebounds and Alex Reis recorded 10 points and six boards.

The Mountaineers have come a long way from a 96-68 loss to Humber in their regular season opener to prove they are the number one team in Ontario. Bello said it was after Christmas time when it looked like they had the pieces to make a run at gold.

“We strung some key wins together and then we started getting confidence and started beating some of the better teams in the league. That’s when we knew we had something good going.”

Mohawk’s last loss was on Feb. 4 versus Algoma. In order to qualify for the OCAA tournament, Mohawk had to first beat Durham in a divisional crossover game on Feb. 25. The team then travelled to Algonquin College in Ottawa to start their tournament run that was played March 1-3. The winning streak continued with victories over Centennial, Georgian and Humber.

As exciting as being crowned provincial champions must be, the Mountaineers have a chance to compete for a national title at this year’s Canadian Collegiate Athletics Association Championship March 15-17 in Truro, Nova Scotia.

Bello doesn’t want to get too wrapped up in the hype of a provincial championship and said the best way to prepare for teams they have never played before is to watch a lot of film.

“I mean, it’s great to have that win under your belt but you kind of have to put it aside and say ‘yeah we feel proud of that’ but we’ve got to move on to something bigger and greater and we feel we can do that too. So, we need to start focusing on the national stage.”

The Mountaineers are ranked fourth to start the tournament, hosted by Nova Scotia Agricultural College, and will play their first game on Thursday (March 15) against the fifth-ranked Vanier Cheetahs of Montreal at 3:00 p. m.