Golden again - No. 7 Men's Basketball captures OCAA crown

By: Nina Kersnik
Humber Athletics Communications

WINDSOR - No. 7 Humber men's basketball is once again on top of the province. The Hawks captured the 2026 OCAA championship on Saturday evening, defeating the No. 10 Mohawk Mountaineers 80–67 to secure the program's 17th provincial title and third in the past five seasons.

Fourth-year forward Adrian Aluyi powered the Hawks offensively with a game-high 22 points and nine rebounds, earning Championship MVP honours.

Game Recap

No. 7 Humber (15-3, 4-0) and No. 10 Mohawk (13-5, 3-1) took to the court for the fourth time in the OCAA Final, fighting for the right to be named the best in the province.

Right from tip-off, the crowd watched the Hawks take a slower start than usual. It took Humber almost five minutes to enter double-digit scoring, with most of those points coming from Adrian Aluyi and Nathan Savage. Together, the two of them worked for six of the Hawks' ten points in the quarter. But even with their efforts, Humber still found themselves down, 13-10 at the halfway point.

Fortunately, the Hawks began to find their rhythm in the back half of what was a tightly contested matchup against the reigning OCAA champions. For a while, the two sides forced back-and-forth play until a careless pass by the Mountaineers allowed Humber to take the lead and keep it until the buzzer.

After ten, the Hawks would take a lead of 22-20 over Mohawk with three quarters left to decide who would take home some hardware.

In the next frame, the pace of play slowed down considerably on the court for Humber, who were forced to lean on Malik Grant, Aluyi and Dwayne Burke for more points. By the end of the second quarter, the three of them racked up four points each for 12 of the Hawks' 16 points in the quarter.

Meanwhile, the Mountaineers capitalized in the opening minutes of the second, putting up a dozen points altogether. Reserve Paul Omofoma took the brunt of it, recording six of Mohawk's 19 points in the quarter.

Then, as time wound down, both sides fought for the lead, but after Humber missed on multiple opportunities, the Mountaineers would take the lead for a second time.

Heading into the break, the Hawks trailed Mohawk by a single point, 39-38.

Now 20 minutes away from an OCAA title, both sides continued to battle for the first points on the scoreboard until Grant made the first contribution of the quarter for his squad. The 2026 OCAA Player of the Year had a relatively slow start to the game but was able to find his groove in the third to accumulate eight of Humber's 20 points. After five minutes, the contributions by Grant and several others allowed the Hawks to take a 48-45 lead over the Mountaineers.

From that point on the Hawks began to put together a perfect recipe for a win, as Humber's starters slowly increased their lead to ten with the addition of Lucas Lewis.

In that time, the Mohawks' offence didn't generate much, scoring only 11 points until the end of the third, with Marko Dosen making the largest contribution. By the end of the quarter, Dosen scored eight points and recorded 20 by the end of the night.

After 30, the Hawks outscored Mohawk 20-11 to take the lead for the first time since the opening quarter, with a score of 58-50.

With the Mountaineers trailing by three possessions, both sides put on a show for the crowd in the last ten minutes.

Mohawk proved they had some energy left in the tank, fighting at every chance they got for points against Humber. Buckets from inside the paint controlled the quarter for the team in orange-and-white, allowing them to show why they deserved a chance at a title. After five minutes, the Mountaineers were able to decrease the Hawks' advantage to seven points.

But Humber pulled through in the back half once Dwayne Burke made a couple of clutch plays with minutes left to bring the energy back up. Moments later, Adrian Aluyi made a few plays of his own to bring the crowd to their feet before shutting out Mohawk for good with two free throws.

In the end, the Hawks claimed their long-awaited title with an 80-67 victory over the Mountaineers.

Dwayne Burke was named Player of the Game for his numerous contributions to help Humber reach the top.

OCAA Championship MVP

• Adrian Aluyi

All-Tournament Team

• Malik Grant
• Dwayne Burke

Humber Highlights

• The Hawks improve to 18-15 all-time in the OCAA gold medal game.
• Adrian Aluyi led all Hawks with 73 points over four postseason games, averaging 18.3 points and 7.3 rebounds while shooting 63.2% from the field.
• The Hawks won the 38th OCAA medal in program history.
• This is the third gold medal for head coach Omar Miles in his fifth season at the helm.
• The last time the Mountaineers won against the Hawks in an OCAA final was in 2014-15. That same year, Humber went on to win the National Championship.

What's Next?

The Hawks will head to the 2026 CCAA Men's Basketball National Championship hosted by the VIU Mariners in Nanaimo, B.C. The championship will run from March 18 to 21 in the VIU Gymnasium. Their first round opponent will be announced in the coming days.