w:st="on">

Bethel

, you can dictate tempo."

The

key to continue success according to

Moore

will be to "stay injury free," adding that how they react to adversity is

important as well.

"We're

bound to have a bad game. The good

teams find a way to win when they have a bad game.

If we can weather that storm, we can do some damage."

On

Tuesday night as the Booker T. Washington Mighty Bookers defeated the Granby

Comets 61-57, erasing and eight-point deficit with 3:15 to play, University of

Florida Head Basketball Coach Billy

Donovan was in attendance to check out five-star prospect DeShawn

Painter, who's rated #22 in the country for the Class of 2009 by

Rivals.com.

Donovan

coached the Gators to back-to-back National Championships and SEC Tournament

titles. He accepted a position to

become the Head Coach of the NBA's Orlando Magic in early June, but a few days

later returned to

Gainesville

and inked a deal that made him the highest paid coach in the sport at the time.

Painter

didn't disappoint Donovan, shaking off a 5-for-15 night from the field to go

14-for-20 from the foul line, score 24 points, grab 13 rebounds and block four

shots. In his team's season

opener, Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski (who

interestingly enough was the last coach to win consecutive Natl. Titles prior to

Donovan) witnessed Oak Hill wallop Booker T. 96-61 with normal">Brandon Jennings torching the Bookers for 45 points.

It was a rough one for Painter as he scored only ten points, but so far

in his team's last two contests, against district foes

Granby

and Norcom, he's been a significant factor in helping BTW make comebacks.

"It

feels good," Painter said when asked what it's like to have big-name college

coaches from around the country see him play. "It's

a blessing from God because all these coaches come to see me and a lot of kids

around here don't get that opportunity. I

just want to thank God on that one."

The

next test for Painter and company comes on Friday night when they visit a

Churchland team that is 5-1 and on a five-game winning streak, keyed by the

arrival of 6-foot-8 big man Kris Sherard.

Painter is familiar with playing at Churchland though; he was on the

floor four times last year and hit the go-ahead shot with less than a minute to

play in Booker T. Washington's 50-47 Eastern Region Championship win over

Nansemond River.

Coach

Darren Sanderlin of Booker T.

Washington has done a masterful job guiding the Bookers to an Eastern Region

Championship and State Championship in the past two seasons.

Because of that recent amount of success, the Bookers are expected to

make another push towards a region title and reaching

w:st="on">

Richmond

come March. But with the losses of

All-State 1^st Team selection Myles

Holley, James Vann and defensive

specialist Adidias Arrington, it'll

be much easier said than done. However,

while the Bookers are less experienced than usual, there's always talent at

Booker T. And Sanderlin is in the

process of blending in some new faces to fill the shoes of those three.

"I

think we're doing a good job of being well-conditioned [and] able to wear some

teams down in crunch time," says Sanderlin, who has also has won a state title

at Booker T. as a player in the 1980's. "I

think the guys are showing a lot of heart, but there's some things we have to

correct on our way to the end."

Rebounding

from a difficult 35-point loss to Oak Hill, it appeared Booker T. was headed for

a 0-2 start. That's when things

suddenly changed as they drilled 18 of 20 free-throws in the fourth quarter

overcome a double-figure deficit and beat Norcom.

Granby

scored 20 points on the normally tough-to-score-on Bookers.

Looking to prevent the Comets from winning a third straight on the BTW

home floor, the defense stiffened down the stretch, holding Granby to only two

points in the final three and a half minutes.

"We

know that defense wins, but for some reason we haven't put together 32 minutes

of defense," said Sanderlin. "What's

happening is some guys are getting acclimated to the playing time that they're

getting, so it's really like on the job training."

Joining

Painter and Desmond Lee in the

starting lineup are Dijon Cuffee, Alfonzo

Leary and freshman guard Earl

Norfleet. None of the three

played on varsity last season. Over

the off-season, Booker T. got transfers Quintin

Spady and Lamar Little from

Indian River

. Spady drilled a pair of

three-pointers and finished with 11 points on Tuesday, while Little grabbed nine

rebounds, made three steal and had the game-winning put-back.

Afterwards,

Sanderlin was seen showing Little how to follow through on foul shots.

Even though Little was a key factor in the team's win over

Granby

, scoring the game-winning put-back, grabbing nine rebounds and making three

steals, he went 0-for-4 from the free-throw line.

True training on the job, huh?

normal">Nansemond's

Numbers From Season-Opening Blowout:

Facing

3-0

Great

w:st="on">

Bridge

on Tuesday night, the Nansemond River Warriors were one of the final teams to

open their season in the Eastern Region and did so in grand fashion, beating the

Wildcats 84-40 and holding a 20-point lead after one quarter of play.

The most impressive thing was that they won by 44 without Brandon

Newsome, the starting point guard from last season's team that lost to

Highland Springs in the State Tournament quarterfinals after leading through

three quarters of play. Newsome

didn't play because of coaches' decision.

The

Warriors' seniors were superb in limited action.

Quinton McDuffie tallied 22

points on 10-of-14 shooting with 11 rebounds in 18 minutes.

normal">Andre Jones scored 16 points on 8-for-13 from the field in 16

minutes, adding seven rebounds, five assists, three blocks and five steals.

normal">Nick Wright had 11 points, 11 boards, three dimes, six blocks and

three steals in 18 minutes.

In Newsome's place, sophomore Dion

Bivins had four points and five assists.

Kenny

Hart was

the major surprise, though. Hart

scored 16 of his 18 points in the first half and shot 5-for-6 from three-point

land. Jeremy

Parker gave a nice contribution off the bench, grabbing 10 rebounds to go

with four points, two assists, two blocks and a couple of steals.

Nansemond

River

will play at first-year school Grassfield on December 18^th, host

Oscar Smith on December 20^th and then return after Christmas with a

trip to

Myrtle Beach

to play in the Beach Ball Classic where they will face reigning Texas State

Champion Duncanville.

normal">Closing

Notes:

***

Even though

Ocean

Lakes

is 3-0 and all alone atop the Beach District, the standings do not reflect them

as a first place team… yet. Remember,

the Beach District will only count wins and losses in the overall record and not

count games in the league record until Tuesday, January 8^th, 2008.

***

After a loss to Churchland by a score of 63-57, Norview guard and William &

Mary commit Kendrix Brown nearly

registered a triple-double in the Pilots' 70-48 win over

w:st="on">

Wilson

. Brown had 18 points, 9 rebounds

and 12 assists.

***

What's the difference between

Hampton

and Heritage? Both of

w:st="on">

Hampton

's losses came by a point, whereas Heritage has two wins by a total of five

points. The two teams will square

off on Tuesday, December 18^th.

Matthew

Hatfield has served as the authority on Eastern Region Hoops since 2004 for

VirginiaPreps.com – the #1 High School Sports Site on the Rivals Network.

Check out Hatfield's website – www.matthewhatfield.com

– for plenty more on the sports world. To

contact Matthew, please e-mail hatfieldsports2k4@yahoo.com.