BIRMINGHAM -— Keith head coach Cecil Williams said he learned everything he knows about basketball from legendary coach Eugene Mason. As the final seconds ticked off the clock Friday in the Bears 38-25 1A state championship win over Spring Garden, his mentor was on his mind.

“We’re dedicating this win to him,” Williams said. “We came out and worked hard and it meant a lot to him.”

Mason was at Keith High School Tuesday, helping the Lady Bears prepare for the championship game when he collapsed and later died at Vaughan Regional Medical Center. He has a resume that may never be matched — his 919 wins and seven state championships are state records.

Williams had known Mason since he was 5-years-old. Back then, Williams would stay for varsity basketball practice at R.C. Hatch and Mason would give him a ride home. After Williams graduated from R.C. Hatch in 1999 and became a head basketball coach at Keith, Mason spent the majority of his winter afternoons in Orrville, helping the Lady Bears practice.

“My whole mindset was to do this for Coach Mason,” said Keith’s Zykia Pettway. “He was with us the whole time. The last few minutes of his life [the coaches] were worried about him but he was telling [the coaches] to worry about us because we had to get the championship.”

Williams said he learned from Mason that coaches should instruct their team in practice, and that game time was when the players got to show what they could do. Because of that, he is often laid back on the sideline and doesn’t call a lot of timeouts.He showed that again Thursday when Spring Garden went on a 7-2 run to start the second half, pulling the Panthers within 18-11. Instead of panicking, he yelled to his team to refocus on the defensive end of the floor.

Keith went on a 15-4 run from that point and held Spring Garden to just 14 points over the final 14 minutes of the game.

“Coach Mason used to tell me ‘If you keep an opponent from scoring, you’ll never lose a game,” Williams said.

The Bears took that to heart Friday. Spring Garden scored only two points in both of the first and second quarters and shot 21 percent from the field.

Williams said Mason was on the mind of the team and the players the entire game.

“We did it for him, giving him his eighth ring,” said guard Harriet Winchester. “I know he’s smiling at us. He’s happy for us.”