A.J. Motika has had an empty feeling the past four seasons.

Every day the Olentangy Liberty High School senior has walked into the gymnasium and gazed upon several banners hanging in honor of league championships. But there is none for boys basketball.

That will change after this season.

The Patriots defeated Dublin Scioto 49-37 on Feb. 7 to clinch a share of the program’s first league championship. On the same night, Westerville North defeated Westerville South 71-68 in overtime to give Liberty the outright OCC-Cardinal Division title.

“It feels like we’re on top of the world,” said Motika, whose team is seeded third in the Division I district tournament behind Northland and Walnut Ridge. “It feels good to finally win it. When I come back here, I will always be able to look up there and know I was a part of the team with my friends that put that banner up there.”

With one game remaining in the OCC-Cardinal, Liberty is 12-1, followed by North (10-3), South (10-3), Olentangy (6-7), Westerville Central (6-7), Scioto (5-8), Dublin Jerome (2-11) and Marysville (1-12).

“It was awesome to win that. We were all jacked up,” senior forward Phil Cheesman said. “After the games, it’s like a mosh pit, jumping on everyone and spraying water around. It can get pretty crazy.”

But the excitement was short-lived. Three days after reaching their first goal of winning the first league title, a second goal of an unbeaten regular-season fell by the wayside as the Patriots dropped to 17-1 overall with a 49-46 loss to Central on Feb. 10 at home.

“Coach (Greg Nossaman) gave us a speech after the game and told us we could either swallow it or spit it out,” senior forward Alec Charbonneau said. “He said that you can’t take back the loss. You have to live with it. You have to get past it and get ready for the next game.”

“I think (the loss) showed us that we’re not as good as we thought we were,” senior forward Josh Pollner said. “Maybe we had big heads, but that won’t happen now. We have to come out and play our best every night. We have to keep playing as a team and can’t lose our winning mindset.”

But how do most teams stay focused? Stay after for extra free throws or shooting a couple hundred jump shots. Liberty’s seven seniors chose another way to unwind on senior night, one day after the loss to Central. They chose to sing the national anthem on Feb. 11 against Beechcroft. Liberty then went out and defeated the Cougars 63-50.

“Coach (Nossaman) said we did a good job,” Charbonneau said. “I’m not sure, but it was a lot of fun.

“We had a great team effort (against Beechcroft), and I think singing the national anthem helped us to keep us from being tight. We just went out focused and kept our heads in the game.”

Nossaman said his team always has fun, which might be one of the secrets of their success.

“This is a pretty loose group. They are always playing hacky-sack or singing or something, but they have always been able to switch from that into game mode,” he said. “These seniors are close, and they are going to leave a big-time mark on the program.”

Senior guard Jake Bischoff said playing in his final home game did not seem possible.

“It’s kind of bittersweet because it’s good to be a senior and to be with my friends, but to realize it’s the last game we play here at home is something that hasn’t sunk in yet,” he said. “It was really important to win (the league title) because we have been together since grade school. We have played with a lot of confidence and played as a team. And I think the coaches put us in the best position to win.”

Senior forward Tyler Shirey said it was a week of many emotions.

“It was kind of a like a roller-coaster ride after winning the league and then losing the next game, but bouncing back after the loss and playing well (against Beechcroft),” he said. “We have to keep coming back strong because any opponent can come back and beat you.”

Senior center Nick Archer said it’s time for Liberty to turn its focus to the postseason.

“Now we have to keep that momentum going and keep working hard,” he said. “We have to continue to do good things in the tournament.”

Nossaman said losing a game isn’t the end of the world, if the team learns from its mistakes.

“I had some good teams (when I coached) at Williard,” he said. “We went 20-0 one year and another year we won 19 games and that was the year we went to the final four.”

At Williard, Nossaman’s unbeaten team finished second in the 2006 state poll, losing to top-ranked Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary 61-51 in a Division II regional semifinal. The Crimson Flashes were second in the 2001 state poll and finished 24-1 after losing to Warrensville Heights 70-66 in a Division II state semifinal.

And now the Patriots turn their attention to a Division I postseason schedule that begins with a second-round game at 6 p.m. March 2 against New Albany or Scioto at Reynoldsburg. Liberty has a first-round bye.

“We have to take one goal at a time. We have won the OCC, and that was goal,” Motika said. “Now we want to see how far we can go in the tournament. We’d like to get as far as the soccer team (which lost to Cleveland St. Ignatius 4-2 in the Division I state final). That’s what we’re shooting for.”