THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 22, 1995 TAG: 9512220546
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBIN BRINKLEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Goodbye, Felipe Lopez; hello, Norfolk schools.
The Tidewater Classic will take a new tack next year with all five Norfolk public schools likely to be involved, city athletic director Bert Harrell said.
They will be matched against teams from other cities, but probably not New York or New Orleans. That means if the best player in the country is to appear here, he will have to be from Virginia and not New York, like Lopez in 1993.
Harrell hopes to fill out the field with top teams from around the region and state.
``We can save a lot of money by not bringing in those teams from other states,'' he said.
Harrell also is considering shortening the event from three days to two and playing all the games on high school campuses. Norfolk State has been used for Saturday's games the past two years, but crowds were sparse this year.
Harrell mentioned Scope as a possibility, recalling a tournament in the early '70s that drew well. But that may be too expensive.
CALL HIM LEFTY: The official medical report on Kempsville's Brian Bersticker is a spiral fracture of the fourth metacarpal on his right hand. The prognosis is that he will miss the rest of the season, but Bersticker says he hopes to return by the second week in February.
Bersticker, a 6-foot-10 junior, scored 16 points in his only start and was injured the next day in practice.
``I'm spending a lot of time working with my left hand, and I think I'll be a better player, a more complete player, when I return,'' he said.
Bersticker has drawn nationwide recruiting interest and doesn't think the injury will change that. A summer of AAU basketball should re-establish his value before the early signing period next fall.
``I've faced the truth,'' he said. ``I'm just doing what I can now to help my teammates.''
BIGGER IS BETTER: Churchland coach Mac Carroll was groping for a word to describe senior forward Kevin Lewis and had to settle for unique. That works.
Lewis is 6-6 and 290 pounds, has a feathery touch to 15 feet and can put the ball on the floor. He scored a career-high 24 points in Wednesday's 76-62 loss to No. 2 Maury, including his first two 3-pointers.
He hit six straight shots and scored 12 points in a 2 1/2-minute stretch of the second quarter, and in the game's waning moments brought the ball upcourt alone against the Commodores' press.
``I just try to help out. That's all,'' said Lewis, who is averaging 14.1 points per game.
After his second 3-pointer banked in off the glass, he said, ``I called it.''
Lewis looks more like a defensive tackle than a power forward, but said he gave up football after hurting his back.
``Jason has real soft hands, a nice spin move in the paint and makes a great outlet pass,'' Carroll said. ``His biggest problem is endurance, but I think he can overcome that.''
SURPRISING SALEM: Salem returned only four reserves from last year's 11-9 team, but was 5-0 entering Thursday's night's game at Ocean Lakes.
That gives coach Bill Cochrane a leg up on his 16th consecutive winning season.
``I feel like we're playing solid defense and taking care of the ball,'' Cochrane said.
Javon Stafford, a 6-1 senior, is averaging 18 points, 10 rebounds and almost three steals per game.
``He's an overachiever who plays hard,'' Cochrane said.
Donell Bledsoe, Jamie Poindexter and Richard Holland are all averaging about 10 points per game. Poindexter, a junior guard, is a straight-A student. by CNB