Coming into this season of the Garden City Draft League, Donte Howell was on a revenge tour, determined to get his first title in Garden City.

This was his seventh season in Garden City, and in his previous six seasons, he made the championship game four times, losing all four by an average of 3.8 points. The closest he came was in the Spring 2019 season, when he lost to Shore Shack 51-50 thanks to a game-winning 3-pointer from Kerin Soltren with five seconds left. Howell had a chance to win the game with a shot from over 30 feet away from the basket, but the shot clanked off the rim.

Howell was presented with an almost identical situation last night in his fifth championship game. After Carl O’Brien made two out of three free throws to give Blue Storm a one-point lead, Howell demanded the ball with 3.1 seconds left.

“Once he made it, I didn’t see them come up, so I was like, ‘Yo, get me the ball’. I went up the sideline, when I got to around half, I looked up and it was about 2, maybe 1.5 seconds left…so I got one more dribble up to a soft spot, went up and it went in,” Howell said in a post-game interview with Anthony Leo.

In the game against Shore Shack in the spring, Howell was down by one and took a shot from beyond 30 feet. He was in the same situation last night, took a shot from an almost identical spot, and this time it went in to give him his first title in Garden City.

“Like a great man once said, it’s about damn time,” Howell said.

The shot caps off an 11-0 season for Scott’s Tots and solidifies Howell’s status as the league MVP. Not only did Howell burry the game-winning shot, but he also had his best performance of the season on the biggest stage. Howell scored a game-high 35 points on 13-15 shooting from the field and 3-5 from deep, adding five rebounds and five assists.

What made the performance even more impressive was that Scott’s Tots was without Carlos Valdez, who was Howell’s first-round pick in this season’s draft. Not only is Valdez a massive part of Scott’s Tots’ offense, but he’s also the only player to be listed above 6’1” on the roster.

“It was tough because Carlos is our only really big man, he was guarding Khadim or whoever the other team’s big man was,” Howell said.

Not having Valdez left mismatches for Khadim Ndiaye (listed at 6’6”) all game, which he took advantage of. He had 27 points and eight rebounds on 11-19 shooting from the field in a losing effort.

This win completes the revenge tour for Howell, and what a way to do it. He finished the season averaging 26.7/4.5/5.5 with shooting percentage splits of 57/37/72. A league MVP, an undefeated season and a buzzer-beater to win the championship. I’m not in a position to make historic claims about UH New York, but there’s no doubt that Howell’s season has to be in the conversation for the best individual season any player has ever had in UH New York.