Advertisement 1

Lambton County basketball greats enter Ontario collegiate Hall of Fame

Two Lambton County basketball stars have been inducted into the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association’s Hall of Fame.

Article content

Two Lambton County basketball stars have been inducted into the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association’s Hall of Fame.

Advertisement 2
Story continues below
Article content

Mike Lucier of Forest was one of the leading scorers in OCAA men’s history with the Lambton Lions. Kelly Dunham, nee Buchanan, of Point Edward was a women’s all-star at Mohawk College before coaching the Mountaineers.

Article content

The Hall of Fame ceremony was scheduled for Monday in Windsor.

Lucier, whose five-year Lions career ended in 2016, is 10th on the OCAA all-time scoring list with 1,482 points.

The North Lambton graduate averaged 16.8 points and 10.7 rebounds a game in his career. He was the West Division defensive player of the year in 2015-16.

Lucier helped the Lions end their long playoff drought in 2014 and led them to their first OCAA Division I medal in the 2016 bronze-medal game.

“Everyone familiar with Lambton Lions basketball knows how important Mike has been to the growth of this program,” coach James Grant said when Lucier turned pro. “When you look back at where our basketball program started, and where we are now, you see Mike’s mark on all of it.”

Advertisement 3
Story continues below
Article content

The six-foot-seven forward made the OCAA all-rookie team in 2011-12, was a second-team all-star in the next two seasons and then a first-team all-star in his final two campaigns.

He went on to play professionally in Germany and with the Windsor Express in the National Basketball League of Canada.

OCAA Hall of Fame inductee Kelly Dunham was a basketball player and coach at Mohawk College. Postmedia Network File Photo
OCAA Hall of Fame inductee Kelly Dunham was a basketball player and coach at Mohawk College. Postmedia Network File Photo

Dunham was a three-time OCAA all-star — twice on the second team and once on the first team — from 1990 to ’93 at Mohawk. She was also an all-star at the 1991 Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association championship for the fourth-place Mountaineers, the OCAA gold medallists.

She also won OCAA bronze medals in basketball and softball in 1992.

Dunham died of cancer in 2020 at 51.

She helped Sarnia Collegiate secondary school win three consecutive OFSAA AA medals: silver in 1985, bronze in ’86 and gold in ’87.

Advertisement 4
Story continues below
Article content

“She was a leader of the team and just an all-around good player,” former high school coach Rick McLellan said. “She could shoot, she was strong inside and she could handle the ball.

“She was a very strong girl. When she came up and gave you a hug, she squeezed you to death,” he said with a chuckle.

She was a great mentor to her young teammates, said McLellan. He knew she’d be a good coach.

“I can remember saying that, ‘Your generation of women is going to take over for guys like me,’” he said. “I think that’s true. There were just so many good basketball players that knew the game and became good coaches.”

Dunham was an assistant coach on the Mohawk women’s basketball team before serving as head coach on the Ontario under-19 squad from 1998 to 2001. She returned to Mohawk as head coach from 2002 to 2015 and also coached at McMaster.

Article content
Comments
You must be logged in to join the discussion or read more comments.
Join the Conversation

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.

Latest National Stories
    News Near Wallaceburg
      This Week in Flyers