Look Mom, a State Championship!

The message was scrawled in black marker on a bandage wrapped just above Hakeem Ward’s right ankle.

“I Love U Mom.”

Of course, it was barely visible from court level, let alone in the stands where his mother sat and watched. But for Ward, a freshman forward on the Ventura College men’s basketball team, Mom was much closer than she had been in a while Saturday night.

Ward’s mother, Mildred Ojoye, made the trip from Passaic, N.J., to see her son’s team win the state junior college championship with an 80-61 victory over West Valley at the Bren Events Center.

A balanced attack helped the Pirates (37-1), and Ward played a big part, scoring 10 points and grabbing eight rebounds in 30 minutes of play.

“It was fantastic,” Ojoye said of watching her son play. “We are special friends, and he’s a special son.”

Ward’s specialty all season has been an ability to gain control on the inside. But perhaps West Valley (32-3) was deceived by the quaint message Ward carried around the floor with him.

Hakeem Ward is no mama’s boy.

“Coach (Philip Mathews) told us they were going to try to intimidate us,” Ward said.

In the end, it was Ward and Ventura who had intimidated the Vikings.

The 6-foot-6, 230-pound Ward scored six points in the first half, then set a number of forceful screens and grabbed a handful of crucial rebounds in the second half as the Pirates pulled away.

Both of his second-half baskets possessed a flair that made his mother beam even brighter.

With just over eight minutes to play, a West Valley player who was falling out of bounds attempted to hurl the ball off Ward’s leg. But Ward caught the ball and scored.

With two minutes to play, Ward slammed home a putback to extend Ventura’s lead to 19 points and set off the victory celebration.