Munster junior forward Nina Garner is hitting her stride.
After all, the beginnings of seasons haven’t been particularly kind to her. Garner missed the first two games of this season with an illness. She said she also missed her sophomore volleyball season after she “sliced” the second-biggest toe on her right foot in an incident with a lawn mower that summer.
“It really wasn’t as bad as it sounds, but it was a whole ordeal,” she said. “I’m completely fine now. I was OK for basketball season. It was a little rough at the start because I had to adjust. My toe doesn’t really bend now, so I had to adjust to running a little bit different. But it’s fine now.”
The 6-foot Garner is doing fine for the Mustangs. She was averaging 11.1 points, second only to sophomore star Gracyn Gilliard, along with 7.7 rebounds, 3.0 steals and a team-high 1.3 blocked shots as Munster (15-3, 3-1) prepared to play Kankakee Valley on Wednesday night with first place in the Northwest Crossroads Conference on the line.
“I’ve just been trying to keep everybody’s energy up, trying to stay positive, make sure everybody’s feeling good,” Garner said. “I feel like I had a little something to prove this year. I feel like I was a little bit nervous on offense last year, and I wanted to make a point to be more aggressive on offense to score more, as well as making sure I’m staying aggressive on every possession on defense.
“But mainly I just want to hype everyone up. Energy is what you need. To have a solid team, you have to be energetic.”
Garner averaged 4.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.8 steals last season after coming off the bench as a freshman.
“I wasn’t really comfortable with my stats last year, so I did want to bring them up this year to show I can improve from year to year. That was a big thing for me this year, and I feel like I’ve made a little bit of headway with that.”
Garner opted not to play volleyball this past season in order to concentrate on basketball. But she intends to return to volleyball.
“I just really wanted to focus on basketball after my injury because that’s what I’m passionate about,” she said. “I wanted to make sure I was strong for this season.
“Now that I’m completely healthy and I feel like I’m good with basketball, I can play volleyball again for fun my senior year.”
Garner’s passion for basketball shows with the Mustangs, who don’t have any seniors on their roster. She’s one of the team’s captains along with junior guard CeCe Mason.
“I make sure everybody has their head in the game,” Garner said. “I make sure everybody is excited and has energy and is pumped up. As long as you create a good atmosphere before the game, it just makes a difference on the court. Everybody has confidence. As long as you create the good energy, you’ll do that much better.”
Munster coach DeAndre Williams said Garner has a knack for that.
“She walks in the gym, and she lights up the whole gym,” Williams said. “Her personality, her character is so high. She’s just a delightful human being to be around. She’ll definitely be missed when she graduates because she brings so much energy and enthusiasm to our team.
“She’s the heartbeat of our team. If I don’t see her smiling, I know something’s not right. She’s smiling all the time.”
Williams also praised Garner’s on-court skills.
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“She’s so talented,” Williams said. “She hasn’t really tapped into what she can be as a basketball player. The sky is the limit as far as her basketball abilities. I’m glad she’s on our team.”
So is sophomore guard Arroya Mongerie, who missed the start of the season with a torn ACL. She appreciated the support she received from Garner.
“During my recovery, she was with me the entire time,” Mongerie said. “She was like a big sister. She’s a big sister to everyone on the team. That’s what I love about her the most.
“Nina just brings a lot of energy. She brings nothing but love and character to the team. She’s also a standout scorer. She helps us in times of need for points.”
Garner is also a standout jumper and sprinter in track and field. She qualified for regionals in the high jump last season.
She believes the Mustangs are poised to finish this season with a flourish.
“I love everything about this team,” Garner said. “My team is like my family. We’re all friends outside of basketball. We share the ball. We all trust each other.
“Having no seniors, it really just adds to all the success we’ve been having. Knowing we’re all going to be able to come back next year, come back stronger and all of us getting better, having this good of a record this year, it gives us a lot of confidence.”