PABLO — National champions. What a title.

The distinct honor became that of the men on the Salish Kootenai College Bison basketball squad when they beat out the last of the Tribal colleges for the American Indian Higher Education Consortium national championship gold on Sunday in Pablo. 

A fast-paced final game against Blackfeet Community College of Browning resulted in a 100-92 win for the Bison and completed a sweep of the tournament for SKC, the women’s team taking first as well.

It meant that the SKC men had their fifth national championship under head coach Zach Camel and their first in front of the home crowd.

Wearing the jacket and pride of another AIHEC victory, Camel tried to find the words for the men who played under him. 

“I’m just so proud of them,” Camel said. “They went through a lot this year - they learned a lot - but they went through a lot this year.” 

Camel felt the sting of a championship loss the year before, along with his only Bison veteran, John Young.

“It wasn’t going to happen again - not on his watch,” Camel said.

Making the championship game was all about finding the best basketball when it mattered most, Camel said.

“For them to peak at the right time, that’s a hard thing to do. We’ve been lucky and able to do it the last six years. It was just great to do it in front of our home crowd,” he said.

And what a game it was, fairly jam-packed with highlight plays and between the tournament’s undisputed best. Each team had mashed way through the competition in pool and bracketed play until a rivalry faceoff for all the marbles awaited them.

On the losing end was BCC, which had earned itself a first-place seed in pool play and a bye through the first round, then went on to demolish Fort Berthold of New Town, N.D. 130-72 in the first game of bracketed competition then rise 94-73 over Oglala Lakota College out of Pine Ridge, S.D.

Meanwhile, SKC was making a statement on the other end of the bracket. After earning a bye through the first round, the Bison trampled Fort Peck out of Fort Peck, Mont. 130-57, and did in Northwest Indian College, out of Bellingham, Wash. 89-66.   

The other in-and-out-of-state competition aside, the two rivals met in the deserved final game.    

Lighting the fire that kept SKC’s engine turning was Dane Fisher, who scored a team-leading 45 points against Fort Peck and another 35 against NWIC.

And that engine kept churning come time for the final match, when Fisher and his team earned some redemption after losing one to the team from Browning earlier in the season. 

“It felt great, it was my first AIHEC championship,” Fisher said. “It feels even better to end the season with a win against those guys.”

Facing BCC’s high-powered offense, Fisher said the key was getting the stops to let him and the other scorers get the job done.

“It came down to good defense. That’s what we had to do - stay scrappy, stay strong, and push at all times,” he said. 

It took SKC’s entire lineup keep things even for the first 20 minutes.

Points from SKC big men like Sonny Eppinette and Andre Domebo in their half-court offense meshed with fast-break scoring from Fisher, Tim Wolfe, Kalolo Loneflight-Iu and Jordan LongTimeSleeping who all tallied points early on.

The back and forth battle raged to narrow 47-42 Bison lead at half.

A BCC surge in the second brought things to even at 53 point a piece with 14 minutes to play in the game.

Holding strong for the Bison was Young, driven by last year’s memory, and a will to get to the basket. Twice in the first minutes of the half he go himself to the line by forcing the ball down BCC’s throat. And both times he made each free-point.

But BCC wouldn’t go away, still within five points, with nine minutes to play.

It was time for the Bison’s bigs to throw down. Domebo started it off with an and-1 and another basket. Then Eppinette made both of his freethrows on a 1-1 attempt followed by two more unanswered baskets.

It was as if the two were competing for dominance, because right after, Domebo took another slap from BCC on a made basket and finished his and-1 with another free throw.

The lead was now 86-70 with 6:15 to play.

And when the Bison gain momentum, Fisher kicks it up a notch. Three back-to-back baskets by the star gave SKC the lead they needed with under three to play.

SKC didn’t back down, BCC couldn’t come back and with 20 seconds remaining Camel rose to his feet and began to clap.

The fans in the stands followed and it was celebration time.

Fisher finished with 37, Domebo with 24, Wolfe with 14, Loneflight-Iu, Eppinette, LongTimeSleeping with six and Young with five.

Fisher was the team’s tournament MVP and Domebo and Eppinette were given the all tourney honors.

SKC’s energy man Wolfe said his first AIHEC championship meant just about everything.

“I’m on cloud nine. This is one of the best things I’ve ever had. There’s not much for words, I’m just pumped,” he said.

Wolfe said hard work paid off for a team that learned day-in and day-out to play together.

“There’s no “I” in our team, we just came together and took it,” he said.

For Camel, the win meant his long commitment at SKC achieved a new level. His team had finally won a championship in the Joe McDonald Health and Fitness Center in Pablo, and gave more hope to a program that started a long time ago.

“That was my dream 11 years ago, to give Native American kids a chance to play college basketball,” he said.

And when he gave a group of Native American men a chance to win a national college championship in their own barn, they took it and went home as No. 1.