ONTARIO — He’s not the biggest player on the floor, but Cameron Mack is perhaps the most comfortable.
Whether he’s playing with his back to the basket or facing up on the perimeter, Ontario’s 6-foot-2 forward is always at ease.
It was never more evident than last Wednesday, when the Richland Source Athlete of the Week helped engineer an upset of Norwalk, snapping the Truckers remarkable 57-game regular season winning streak along the way. Mack scored 20 points on 7 of 10 shooting in the 63-61 win.
But those numbers only tell part of the story.
Mack knocked down his only 3-point attempt, grabbed four rebounds, handed out two assists and blocked two shots. When Norwalk’s Ben Haraway drove the lane for a potential game-tying shot in the final seconds, it was Mack who got a finger tip on the ball and redirected it.
And afterward, as the Ontario student section worked itself into a frenzy, Mack was cooler and more collected than any high school senior ought to be.
“We knew that they were a good team and going in we thought it would be decided by which team was willing to work hard and make more effort plays,” said the level-headed Mack, who scored 12 first-quarter points as the Warriors stormed to a 23-13 lead. “I was able to get good position and I give a lot of the credit to (point guards) Lenell Shelby and Tyler Boatwright for getting me the ball.”
In addition to shouldering the offensive load, Mack spent much of the evening chasing Norwalk’s Jeff Thomas, who has verbally committed to Division I Georgia State. Thomas scored a game-high 23 points, put needed 23 shots to do it.
“He is a great player and he’s going to score, but you have to try to contain him,” Mack said. “I wanted to make him work hard for his shots.”
While Mack’s athleticism is impossible to ignore — he was a All-Ohio second-team receiver in football last fall and finished seventh at state in the 200-meter dash last spring — perhaps his greatest attribute is his mental approach to the game. He doesn’t try to be something he’s not.
“The thing Cameron has done so well this year is he hasn’t tried to do too much,” longtime Ontario coach Joe Balogh said. “He has established what he wants to do offensively for us.
“The other big part of it is he trusts our other guys. He has a lot of trust in Tyler and Lenell that they are going to get the ball to him in a position where he can be successful.”
The trust is mutual.
“The one thing I know about Cameron is he does what he is supposed to do when he is supposed to do it,” Shelby said at Ontario’s 67-44 win at Madison on Saturday. “You can rely on him to make good decisions.”
Mack averages about 16 points and five rebounds a game. He had 13 points in Saturday’s win, but still drew the praise of Madison coach Tim Mergel.
“Whenever Mack has the ball in his hands, you’ve got to be prepared for anything,” Megel said. “He’s got such a soft touch. You look at some of the angles that he shoots from and you think he’s at a bad angle, but his touch is just so good that it goes in.
“He’s an animal.”
By virtue of last week’s win over then No. 1 Norwalk, unbeaten Ontario (17-0, 8-0 Northern Ohio League) vaulted to No. 2 in Division II in this week’s Associated Press state poll. Ontario is at Sandusky on Wednesday (weather permitting) and hosts Richland County rival Shelby on Friday. A rematch with the Truckers looms on Feb. 21, the regular season finale.
“We have to view it as just another game,” Mack said, “and now that they are in our conference, it’s just another conference game.”
Ontario and Norwalk could potentially meet for a third time in the Division II district finals at Mansfield Senior on March 8. The tournament draw is Sunday.
If that third meeting comes, the Warriors would welcome the opportunity.
“I told this team early in the season that I’ve probably trusted this team more than any team I’ve coached for a long time,” Balogh said. “They are pretty good at knowing who needs to get the basketball and where they need to get it.
“A lot of situations we put the ball in Cameron’s hands where we know he’s going to be effective and he comes through for us.”
“Whenever Mack has the ball in his hands, you’ve got to be prepared for anything,” Megel said. “He’s got such a soft touch. You look at some of the angles that he shoots from and you think he’s at a bad angle, but his touch is just so good that it goes in. He’s an animal.”
