ORONO – Mention Camden to most people in Maine and the first image coming to mind is one of a picturesque coastal town with a traditional town square, quaint shops, and tourists milling about.

That’s not what Ernest Turner sees.

Instead, the senior guard and leading scorer for the University of Maine men’s basketball team sees one of crime, poverty, danger, and temptation.

The 24-year-old son of Patricia Turner and William Hill grew up in Camden, N.J., voted the nation’s most dangerous city by Morgan Quitno Corporation in its annual “Crime City Rankings” each of the last two years.

“Camden in general is terrible. I mean, it’s just bad,” Turner said with the conviction of a man used to relating how bad “bad” really is. “It’s the worst crime city with the worst murder rate in the country. There’s a lot of drugs, teen pregnancy… You name it.”

The rankings tally rates for six crimes (murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft) and compares crime data reported to the FBI on 350 cities with populations of 75,000 or more.

“I was running from bullets. That’s how it is,” Turner said matter-of-factly. “I lived with my godfather a lot because my mom wanted me out of there as much as I could be.

“I even lived with my AAU [Amateur Athletic Union basketball] coach in the suburbs most of my high school career because mom wanted me out of there. I mean, who knows? If I’d have stayed in Camden, I probably wouldn’t be here.”

“Here” is Orono, some 550 miles away from Turner’s home town. It’s quite a contrast from Camden and Las Vegas, where Turner decided to go after being given a scholarship to play ball for the University of Nevada Las Vegas in 2001. Life is a lot less exciting (dangerous) and a lot more tranquil (boring), but it works for Turner.

“It’s like night and day between here and UNLV, but I think I can adjust anywhere and I think this is the best situation for me,” said the 6-foot-2, 213-pound child development major who will lead his seventh-seeded Black Bears into an America East Tournament quarterfinal against No. 2 seed Binghamton University in Vestal, N.Y., Saturday at noon.

It was quite a circuitous route to Orono and a study in patience as Turner spent two seasons as a reserve guard for Charlie Spoonhour’s UNLV Runnin’ Rebels and a year without any competition after transferring to Maine before he was able to finally suit up as a regular starter.

“It happens all the time. We had a change in the [UNLV] coaching staff and I wasn’t one of their guys,” Turner explained. “I knew I could play full time and start for coach [John] Giannini, who recruited me pretty hard to come here.”

A year after arriving, Turner went through his second Division I coaching change as Giannini was hired by LaSalle and replaced by assistant coach Ted Woodward.

“It’s funny, I never thought I’d come to Maine, but I’m here and I’m definitely happy with the decision I made,” Turner said. “I really had no idea what it was going to be like here. I just knew basically that it was going to be cold and it snowed all the time. It really doesn’t snow that much, but it is cold.”

What’s not cold is Turner’s game. After starting 21 of 25 games in 2004-05 and averaging a team-leading 13.7 points to go with 2.8 assists, 2.6 rebounds, and 1.1 steals, Turner has upped his production this year: Starting all 27 games, scoring a team-best 15.2 points per game and averaging 4.3 rebounds (fourth on team), 2.0 assists (third) and 1.4 steals (first).

“He’s done a lot better job of taking what defenses give him and his turnovers are down as a result,” said Woodward. “He’s not trying to force things. His defense is great and he’s fourth in the league in steals, and certainly his rebounding is improved as well.”

Not bad for a former shortstop and pitcher who never even picked up a basketball in organized play until he was 13.

“I went with a friend who just told me to come and play. I was playing a year before my mom even knew I could play basketball,” Turner recalled. “Going into my eighth grade year, I just quit baseball and haven’t touched a glove since.”

The influence Turner’s family, especially his mom, has had on him is obvious.

“There have been a few situations that I could have really screwed up and changed all this,” Turner said. “I was tempted, but at the end of the day, I knew it wasn’t going to be good for me, even though I was young and dumb.”

Turner credits lessons taught by his mom, godfather, and religion for avoiding trouble.

“If I didn’t do good in school, I didn’t play ball. Stuff like that. I couldn’t go out, let alone play ball, until my homework was done,” he recalled. “I knew the difference between right and wrong almost from the start and I was always in church every Sunday. I still go as much as I can just to hear the word and calm my nerves.”

Turner has had to be the Bears’ Maine man this season with the loss of preseason all-conference guard Kevin Reed for the year with a broken foot.

“I had high expectations for both myself and the team,” said Turner, the youngest of four siblings and godson to Arnold “Franklin” Duprey.

Still, even with Maine’s 12-15 overall record and 7-9 conference mark, Turner’s made a difference. His defining moment came in the season’s final home game – ironically on “Senior Day” – when he led the Bears back from a 20-point second half deficit and canned a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from just inside the halfcourt line to beat UMBC 69-66.

“He’s had games where he can show what he can do, but because of injuries, he’s been the number one target of every defense,” Woodward said. “That’s why I would say maybe we haven’t seen what he can really do when he’s not the focal point for every defense.”