For the first 20 minutes of Wednesday’s quarterfinal game between Cameron and Incarnate Word, senior guard Milton Garner didn’t actually look like his team’s best players, much like the best in the entire conference.
But good players eventually turn things around and that’s what Cameron’s leader did, not only turning the tables for his own game, but his team as well.
Garner, recently named the LSC’s Player of the Year, was scoreless against IWU in the first half and saw his team down 16 at one stretch in the second half.
But Garner, who leads the conference in scoring at 19.2 points per game, kept fighting through his struggles and eventually picked it up, as did the Aggies, who rallied to force overtime and then beat the Cardinals 77-68.
“I just tried to keep focused and not rush things,” Garner said. “Sometimes you have a slow start and it doesn’t go your way. But I always say, if you’re not scoring, you have to pick up your game on the other end.”
Garner did bring the defensive pressure as did the Aggies, who fought and scratched to get back in the game.
“We stuck to the basics and just played calm, hit our free throws and made some stops to get back in it,” said Cameron head coach Wade Alexander. “Sometimes we can’t just rely on (Garner) to do it all. I like the way we responded a couple of times.”
As for Garner, he admitted being a tad nervous for Wednesday’s game, for it was less than 24 hours since being named the LSC player of the year.
“That’s a big award to live up to. I know people expect a lot from me but I just go out there and even though I’m not making my shots, I have to play within myself and wait for the opportunities to come my way. Tonight, my teammates came through for me. I wasn’t making shots, but my teammates were.”
But Garner did help out eventually, hitting a huge 3-pointer to tie the game with 3:57 in regulation.
“I have confidence in myself that it’s going to come around for me if I stay patient,” Garner said. “Tonight, it just took a while.”
Garner, a three-year letterman, has been a contributing player for an Aggies team that has advanced to the LSC Championship two of the last three seasons. And the senior also admits he’s happy about getting another shot at the top-seeded Mustangs of Midwestern State, which is located about an hour south of the Cameron campus in Lawton, Okla.
“It might not look like it on the stats but it’s a rivalry to us,” Garner said. “It’s only 75 miles from our campus. We want to beat them. They’re a good team but we know we can be a good team when we’re playing our game like we did tonight.”
Even if it took a while to come around.
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