ABILENE, Texas (December 3) – Two free throws with under two seconds left by junior guard Dernodo Eiland gave the Cameron men’s basketball team (5-0) a 58-57 road win over the Abilene Christian Wildcats (3-2). The win keeps CU perfect on the season. Tonight’s game was the first Lone Star Conference Crossover match-up for both teams.
 
“We shot it terribly tonight but we took care of the ball, out-rebounded our opponents, and played really good defense,” Head Coach Wade Alexander said. “It’s like I’ve been preaching all year: you can’t count on shooting well every game but you can count on doing what we did tonight.”
 
An Aggie turnover with mere seconds left in the game gave the Wildcats the ball and a 57-56 lead. As the remaining seconds ticked down, ACU’s Eddie Thompson blatantly fouled Eiland with less than 2 seconds on the clock. Eiland came up clutch and knocked down both free throws to give the Aggies a 58-57 lead.
 
“Dernodo hit two clutch free throws at the end and really came up big for us,” Coach Alexander said. “He comes through whenever we need him to.”
 
Cameron knocked down Abilene Christian’s in-bounds pass to end the game on an interesting note.
 
“We already have two road wins and last year we only had three road wins total, so it’s nice to get that monkey off our back,” Coach Alexander said.
 
The game was tied 8 times in the first half and each team held their fair share of leads. A buzzer-beating three-pointer by ACU’s Riley Lambert gave the ‘Cats a 34-31 halftime lead, but the Aggies bounced back in frame two.
 
CU played catch up for most of the second half before finally taking a 52-51 lead with 4:38 to go. The Aggies remained in control until there were only 21 seconds on the clock. Four lead changes in the final minute made for a very wild ending.
 
Sophomore guard Milton Garner once again led the Aggies offensively with a game-high 22 points on 9-14 shooting.
 
Garner and junior guard Jacquez Williams (10) were the lone Aggies to finish with double-digit scoring numbers. Williams contributed his points on 3-9 shooting.
 
Forwards Jamaar Burke (senior) and Nathan Murray (junior) both led the Black and Gold in the rebounding category with 9 boards each.
 
Cameron out-rebounded Abilene Christian 41-30 tonight, but the ‘Cats shot better from the field 44.0%-35.1%. Both teams came away with 3 steals and ACU out-blocked CU 7-1.
 
“This win gives us a ton of confidence; to come out and get a win on the road against a good ACU team is huge,” Coach Alexander said. “Now we need to put this one behind us and go on to the next one.”
 
CU completes their current three-game, five-day roadtrip this Saturday (December 5) against Angelo State University. The Aggies and Rams tip off at 4:00pm that afternoon.

 
 
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