Lorne Merthie turned 19 and gave Campbell a present on his birthday.

The Camels freshman guard celebrated by scoring a career-high 22 points as Campbell beat Jacksonville 89-83 this past Monday. He went 6 of 7 from the field, 3 of 3 on 3-pointers and 1 of 1 from the line for 16 first-half points

Averaging 8.9 points per game, Merthie is the only Atlantic Sun freshman to start every game this season. He's shooting 38 percent from 3-point range and is a leading candidate for Freshman of the Year honors.

The 6-foot-1, 170-pound guard from Sanford Fla., has drawn raves for his mature play from opposing coaches like UNCP's Ben Miller. He took some time to chat with staff writer Paul Shugar about his first season.

Q:What was it like to have nearly two dozen friends and family members watch you play your best college game on your birthday?

A:It was a big win, a big conference win that will get us back on track. My coach told me before we played that he wanted me to play hard and leave it on the floor. I took that serious. I had to. The fans were happy I had a good birthday with a good victory.

Q:How did you celebrate after the game?

A:We went out to eat afterwards. My parents celebrated my birthday with me the day before so we could do something with the team on game day. We went to T.G.I. Friday's (and they got me a cake).

Q:What clicked offensively for you in that game?

A:I was just feeling it. I felt like it was my day to step up, and it was. I was making every shot. I was just feeling it — jumpers, hitting free throws, just taking it to the basket early on.

Q:How do you view your role on this team? I hear you're a jokester.

A:That's one of my roles — keeping us amped up and ready to keep moving and be ready for the next game. I joke around in practice, but I'm serious when I need to be. Because certain times are not the time to joke around. But when people are dead in practice, I make a joke to get them fired up.

Q:What's the biggest thing you've learned as a starter this season?

A:That you have to work hard in practice every day to maintain your spot. I've always got to be showing some type of strong shooting. And even though I'm not in the senior role or upperclassman role, my role is leading the team by doing anything I can do to help us out. Anything I can do to bring us momentum and keep helping us win.

Q:Since you're a shooter, do you guys ever play H-O-R-S-E against each other?

A:We do it before the season starts, but we stop playing it as much right now. But we do have a couple games and I have a couple guys I got toe to toe with. Who's a better shooter than me? (Guard) Jonathan Perry, the walk-on on the team. We have some battles. And I want to say (Jake) Capin as well.

Q:What do you consider your go-to shot?

A:Probably shooting it from deep — somewhere between halfcourt and the 3-point line.

Copyright 2009 - The Fayetteville (NC) Observer / reprinted with permission