LAWTON, Okla. – Cameron men's basketball team overcame 19 turnovers and a lackadaisical performance Monday night to improve to 3-0 on the year with a 68-61 victory over Hillsdale Baptist at the Aggie Gym.
Sophomore Vinicius Telo scored 18 points for the Aggies as they improved to 3-0 on the season heading into Saturday's matchup with Lone Star Conference foe Tarleton State.
This win, though, was marred by turnovers after facing the University of Texas-San Antonio last week in an exhibition game.
"It's kind of like the D-I hangover," Cameron coach Wade Alexander said. "You go play a D-I in their arena, and it's exciting, and you play good and you come back on top of the world and think you can beat anybody. You have a smaller school come in your place and it's 'Ah we got them. We played well the other night against UTSA.'"
Cameron grabbed a 12-point lead to begin the second half and led by nine with 12:11 remaining after Thomas Razor's layup.
But then things started getting dicey as the Saints (4-5) hit two straight 3-pointers for a 47-43 deficit with 10:57 remaining. A quick turnaround jumper by Telo put the Aggies back up six but Chadd Gehrke buried another trey for a 49-46 score.
Gehrke finished with a game-high 24 points behind five 3-pointers.
"He's just a 3-point shooter and that's what our guys have got to realize," Alexander said. "You've got to get out on him and you've got to really get out on him, not just have a hand in his face. He started getting loose and feeling like he could make everything and that happens to you. Our defense really to me was not very good."
Hillsdale Baptist continued its comeback attempt by getting as close as one with 9:10 remaining before Josh Davis' putback and two free throws from Telo gave the Aggies a bit of breathing room.
Davis would later hit a 3-pointer with 5:15 remaining that put Cameron up 60-50. From there it became a game of free throws as the Aggies held on.
The Saints did commit 19 turnovers on the night, but were still able to keep the game close, but that doesn't appear to be a future concern.
"No, no not really because we were playing some different combinations tonight," Alexander said. "We didn't play a couple of guys that were just kinda banged up, not really saving them but we don't want to make it worse.
"We could have done some things to maybe blow them out. We could have probably pressed them but it's not about that for us really. It's more about being solid and working on some things we needed to work on as well."
Davis added 13 points for the Aggies, while Milton Garner had 11 and Razor finished with 10.
Razor, a Lawton native, gave Cameron some momentum at halftime with a trey just before the buzzer.
Even with the balanced offense, Alexander said he would like to see better ball control.
"Telo's got eight (turnovers) this game, he had five Saturday against UTSA," he said. "He's got to take better care of the ball. He can do a lot of things putting it on the floor and getting to the basket, but he's got to realize when he's open and when he's not. Especially late in the game when they're pressing if he just picks it up he can see over the defense. He can pass it to somebody and we can get a layup, but he hasn't been in that situation."
Cameron also outrebounded the Saints 37-26.
The Aggies will host Texans on Saturday before heading to the Oklahoma City Arena on Monday afternoon against Rhema Bible College.
"It's like I told them, you can enjoy the victory and everything else they say on ESPN, but not really," Alexander said. "We've got a game Saturday, we're spending our Thanksgiving practicing and you don't want to do all of that for nothing. We've got to start concentrating on what we're doing right now and come to play then because they're going to be a whole lot tougher."
