History was made as the George Brown Huskies captured the OCAA men's basketball championship for the first time in 44 years.
On Sunday afternoon inside the Lambton College Athletics & Fitness Complex, George Brown defeated the Humber Hawks 78-65 to win the gold medal. The Huskies will attempt to ride this momentum of their first Provincial banner since 1976 into the 2020 CCAA Men's Basketball National Championship tournament from March 18-21, which is hosted by Humber College.
Chris Fields was named Huskies Player of the Game afterwards. Like he has done the entire season, the guard was a perfect spark plug off the bench recording 13 points, six rebounds, four assists, and four steals. Veteran forward Kingslee D'Silva was huge for George Brown as well posting a game-high 20 points, 13 rebounds, three blocks and a steal in the victory. He was named Champion MVP for his outstanding play during the three-day Provincial Championship.
Guard Caldre Campbell played tremendously down the stretch. He went 4-of-8 from three-point range for 12 keys points and was named a 2020 OCAA Men's Basketball Championship All-Star. Rookie Naseem Barry chipped in with 13 points while earning Top Rookie in the tournament.
First-year head coach Jason Dawkins could not be more proud of his team for ending the long championship drought.
"It feels amazing to win a Provincial title. These young men have committed to our program. They have done a tremendous job in the classroom, putting in the necessary work on the court and committing to the culture," the coach explained. "These young men have worked extremely hard to make it this far. As a head coach to bring back the OCAA Championship to George Brown after just a long haul, feels amazing. I am thankful of Melanie (Manager of Athletics and Recreation) for giving me the opportunity to bring this championship back to George Brown."
The defence continued to the catalyst for the Huskies in the final. They held the Hawks to 34% from the field in the first half to take a 42-40 lead into halftime.
The Huskies increased their lead slightly out of the locker room. They compiled a 7-0 run to push their advantage to 58-48 with under two minutes left in third quarter. Humber College got as close as five points, but George Brown was too much the rest of the way.
George Brown is off to Nationals for the first time since 2017. Dawkins wants his team to keep doing what they have done so far.
"My expectations going into the National Championship is continuing to do what we do best. We are number one in the province for a reason, but we are going to continue to work hard the next couple of weeks to get ready for Nationals," the coach said. "Hard work pays off and we've worked really hard hoping that it will pay off at Nationals."
