THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 1, 1995 TAG: 9502010575
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
When it comes to having a bad game, Booker T. Washington's Kenny Brown has a good attitude.
He needed it two weeks ago when he had a clunker of a night in a 90-80 loss to Indian River.
Brown scored a season-low five points, including a 1-for-9 shooting performance from 3-point range, and committed seven turnovers.
``I didn't let it get me down,'' Brown said, ``because I know that even the great ones have bad games every now and then.''
So he erased it from his memory.
Then Brown and his teammates took on the task of erasing the area's only unbeaten record from the chalkboard. Behind Brown's 24 points, the Bookers knocked off previously unbeaten Granby on Friday, 95-81 in double overtime, and took possession of first place in the Eastern District.
Brown followed that with a 28-point performance Saturday night in an 87-79 victory at Deep Creek.
His 52 points in back-to-back games earned the senior point guard The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star boys athlete-of-the-week award.
Brown hopes his best performance of the week was sandwiched between those two basketball games. He took the Scholastic Assessment Test on Saturday morning.
``I'm pretty confident I passed,'' Brown said.
``Passed'' meaning achieving the NCAA's minimum required score of 700 for freshman athletic eligibility. The 5-foot-9 Brown has his sights set on playing Division I basketball next year if he meets the academic standards.
On the basketball court, he has met the high standards set by Bookers coach Barry Hamler.
``He's a coach on the floor, a five-star general directing the troops,'' Hamler said. ``He's a Douglas MacArthur. Even better than that, he's a Colin Powell.
``Kenny averages 6 1/2 assists a game and only (1992 state player of the year) Michael Evans has averaged more since I've been here.''
It's not as if Brown is a secret. He was a first-team All-Tidewater selection last season when he averaged 15 points and 8.6 assists per game.
Brown says the major difference between this year and last is that opponents want to say they did a job on an All-Tidewater player.
``In a way, it added some pressure,'' Brown said. ``I've got to be ready to play - night in and night out.'' by CNB