DATE: Tuesday, September 30, 1997           TAG: 9709300450

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   62 lines

SEAHAWKS SOARING AFTER 16 GAMESATLANTIC SHORES THUMPS CATHOLIC TO REMAIN UNDEFEATED IN FALL GIRLS BASKETBALL.

Next!

Add Catholic to the list of worthy challengers unable to dispute Atlantic Shores' claim as South Hampton Roads' top fall girls basketball team. The Crusaders took their shot Monday night, but succumbed to the Seahawks' withering defensive pressure and the all-court brilliance of Ashley Etheridge, losing 62-44 at Catholic.

``Everybody was saying this was going to be the big game, that they were our best competition,'' said Etheridge, who finished with 25 points, 24 rebounds and six steals as the Seahawks improved to 16-0. ``But we just treated it like another game, played the way we normally play.''

Actually, a normal Atlantic Shores game leaves the Seahawks ahead by about 30 at the final buzzer. Credit the resilient Crusaders (10-2) for staying in it throughout and closing to within nine with three minutes left.

But with Seahawk guards Denita Griffin (17 points, seven steals) and Shelley Matthews defending as though they each had two sets of hands, Catholic's run quickly disintegrated.

``They're just too quick, too athletic,'' Catholic coach Larry Bowman said.

A year ago, few would have figured these two teams would be playing in a game with area supremacy implications this soon. The Seahawks were a respectable but hardly awe-inspiring 14-11 last season; the Crusaders 8-11.

Atlantic Shores' transformation to area powerhouse began last January, when flashy point guard Griffin transferred from Hickory High. And it became complete this fall when her 5-foot-7 cousin Etheridge left Hickory to become a Seahawk as well.

Both players say smaller classes and more individual attention, not a better basketball opportunity, attracted them to Atlantic Shores.

``For the first time, I actually like going to school,'' Etheridge said. ``At Hickory, I dreaded getting up in the morning.''

Catholic's talent, on the other hand, has been developed from within. Catholic's junior varsity team lost just two games the past two years. And the team is led by 5-10 Ashley Johnson, who is the freshman class president, has a 3.7 GPA and is one of the best players around.

Indeed, this battle between the two Ashleys might have been better than the game itself. On one end you had Johnson, a second-team All-TCIS performer as an eighth-grader, scoring 23 points and snatching 15 rebounds with fundamentals straight out of a how-to book on basketball.

At the other end you had Etheridge, soaring for rebounds and making outlet passes before her feet hit the ground, dribbling through Catholic's press and using her body to operate inside like a little Charles Barkley.

``Everybody says that,'' Etheridge said.

How might this juggernaut stack up against the area's best public schools? Since those schools play in the winter, we'll never know.

And at this point, the Seahawks don't really care.

``We played public schools in summer league,'' Etheridge said. ``I know that's not real, real basketball. But it's OK. We just love to play.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

LAWRENCE JACKSON/The Virginian-Pilot

Denita Griffin of Atlantic Shores, left, swipes the ball - one of

her seven steals - from Catholic's Sam Olbes during the Seahawks'

victory Monday.

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