Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 27, 1992                   TAG: 9203270347
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: M.J. DOUGHERTY CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LUSTERS GATE                                LENGTH: Medium

FIRST, THE LADS FROM GATEWAY `GIVE TESTAMENT'; THEN THEY WIN

After all, there is no gymnasium at Gateway Christian Academy. Only the baskets in the parking lot.

And the school has less than two dozen boys of high school age. That's not a large player pool.

"It all started there 12 years ago," said Jeff Aikens, who has coached the team from the beginning. "We started there with a rubber ball. That's all we had."

But from those beginnings, the Crusaders have put together an impressive boys' basketball program. In the dozen years, they have 220 wins and only 65 losses - a .772 winning percentage.

They have won seven straight district titles. They've won the Old Dominion Association of Christian Schools state title for Group A schools - 50 students or less - for the past two years and four times since the mid-1980s.

This season, the Crusaders (26-8) were the runners-up in the American Association of Christian Schools national tournament this month at Tennessee Temple University in Chattanooga.

With credentials like that, Gateway has gone from sneaking up on people to collecting trophies. In fact, there are so many trophies in the school office, a display case is going to be built.

"The first thing we aim to do is give testament," said Aikens, referring to the church school's mission. "The second thing we want to do is win."

Gateway Christian spread its message and its winning ways through five states - Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia. It also played teams from Maryland, South Carolina, Kentucky, Alabama, Indiana and Missouri.

What's more amazing is the school did all this traveling without any athletic budget per se. The trips were made possible by the generosity of the 500-member congregation at Gateway Baptist Church and the hard work of team members and their parents. The usual results of those trips were a lot of victories and plenty of memories.

"Beating Mercer [Christian of Princeton, W.Va.] was an important point," said senior point-guard Timmy Henderson, who became only the second player in Crusader history to score 1,000 career points. "We were down by 19 points. And we came back to beat them by two on Brad's [Ewing] free throws with three seconds left."

Those foul shots gave Gateway Christian its first win over its larger rival from West Virginia.

There also was the game against Martinsville Christian, which had a 6-foot-8 center and 6-6 and 6-4 forwards. The Crusaders' tallest player is 6-3 reserve post player Steve Mannon, a sophomore.

The first quarter was close. Then Gateway's pressure kicked in. Its trapping, pressing defense proved to be too much. Gateway won by 45.

"The defense was a major factor this year," said Kevin Lucas, a junior guard. "Our defense plays hard. We start working from the beginning of the game."

Another factor that worked to Gateway's advantage this year was that the team was fundamentally strong.

"We make the other teams beat us," said Aikens. "Most good teams don't need a lot of help beating you. Still, we don't want to make it easy for them."

The Crusaders' commitment to fundamentals means they must make the most of their daily one-hour practice sessions at the Blacksburg Rec Center, which cost the team $9 each.

The team also learns from its losses. Early in the year, ineffectiveness against the 1-3-1 zone cost Gateway a game. But by the time the Maryland state champion tried that tactic in the national regionals, the Crusaders were ready.

And, as would be expected on a church-school team, selfishness is absent. Eight of the 10 players on the squad led the team in scoring at some time during the year.

"There's no politics to it," said Ewing, a 5-10 junior who played on Oak Hill's B team last year. "And there's good coaching."

Four of the five starters - Henderson, junior forward David Arthur, junior center Sam Moore and freshman guard Matt Linkous - averaged in double figures. Lucas and Ewing were near that mark. And Mannon averaged about six points per game.