DATE: Sunday, November 23, 1997             TAG: 9711230172

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C11  EDITION: FINAL 
SERIES: NORFOLK STATE

        A SEASON ON THE ROAD

        DAY 4

        The Norfolk State men's basketball team will spend most of this

        season, its first at the Division I level, traveling. The Spartans

        have 19 away games and will spend nearly 50 days on the road -

        including stops in Los Angeles, Hawaii, Wyoming and Colorado.

SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                       LENGTH:  100 lines

SPARTANS' FRUSTRATION MOUNTS ON WEST COAST TRIP BUT NSU COACH IS ABLE TO FIND SOME TRACES OF PROGRESS IN ONE-SIDED LOSS.

On one side of Pepperdine's Firestone Field House, there were the student fans, about a thousand of them, who had randomly selected Kevin Perry as the designated object of their ridicule for the night and launched into a derisive, sing-song chant of the Norfolk State point guard's name every time he touched the ball:

``Kehhhh-viiiin! Kehhhhh-viiiin!''

On the other side stood Spartans coach Mike Bernard, firing off staccato bursts of the same name in an often-futile attempt to get Perry's attention to deliver play instructions:

Kevin! Kevin!

And in Perry's face crouched the intimidating presence of Pepperdine's Jelani Gardner, the Waves' top defender, a wiry 6-6 junior with the quickness of a guard and the wingspan of some centers.

Hardly the ideal circumstances for Perry, who was coming off ``the worst game of my life'' in the Spartans' season opener Tuesday against St. Francis and entered Friday's contest against the Waves looking to establish his skills on the Division I level.

Two frustrating hours and a 99-57 defeat later, he's still looking. Perry's first shot, a 15-footer, sailed over the rim and glanced off the backboard. His next two shots also failed to draw iron.

``Kehhhhhh-viiiin! Kehhhhh-viiiin!

Gardner picked him clean once and harassed him out of options several other times. And the Spartans didn't want to get into a running game with the supremely athletic Waves; few teams will this season. But too often, Perry failed to heed Bernard's call to slow things down and would sprint up court with the ball, but without the plan he as the point guard was supposed to implement.

``Kevin! Kevin!''

And so the struggles continued for Perry, who considered his arrival at Norfolk State this year after two seasons at the junior-college level the fulfillment of a lifetime goal.

``It's always been my dream to play Division I ball,'' he said.

Perry was a 52-percent three-point shooter at Polk Community College in Florida, and looked like the Spartans' best player through pre-season workouts. He was clearly the dominant performer on the court during the team's lone public scrimmage, where he smoothly mixed his traditional basketball skills with street-game savvy and instincts honed through years of playing on the playgrounds.

No Spartan anticipated the season opener more. His father, a command sergeant major in the Army, came to Norfolk from Fort McPherson in Georgia to witness it personally.

But the opener turned out disastrously, for the Spartans in general and Perry (1 of 12 from the field) in particular.

Friday, Perry could only produce more of the same. He made just one of five field goal attempts - although he did nail his only three-point try - and was replaced by a more-effective Kenny Brown. Perry played only 19 minutes.

Kehhhhh-viiiin! Kehhhhh-viiiin!

Kevin! Kevin!

``He just needs to get his confidence back,'' Brown said. ``That's all. That's all most of this game is, confidence.''

Despite the final score, Friday's game wasn't nearly the fiasco that unfolded three days earlier at Echols Arena. A unit featuring Brown and Damian Woolfolk at guard, Greg Jones and Michael Beckles at forward and Sean Blackwell at center actually had the Waves scrambling for a stretch in the first quarter, when NSU cut a 16-point deficit to eight and forced Pepperdine to spend a timeout. This fivesome accounted for 42 of the Spartans' 55 points.

Jones and Woolfolk (10 points each) continued to be the Spartans' most solid players. Woolfolk, in fact, caught the attention of a scout for the Milwaukee Bucks for his ability to squeeze off a good shot in dire circumstances.

Freshman forward Darrell Neal (5 points) established himself in the second half before fouling out. And 325-pound reserve center Clyde Abney proved he can fill up a stat sheet - in eight minutes, Abney produced a steal, two points, three shots, four rebounds and five fouls.

That they couldn't sustain their patches of good play, or the fact that they were outscored 25-7 over the final 11 minutes, didn't deter a calm, almost paternal Bernard from viewing the game as a small step forward.

``We did a lot of things better tonight,'' the coach said.

Even the taunting Perry endured was viewed by at least one player as something to build on.

``Wait 'til we play Hampton,'' Brown said. ``Those fans will be on him 10 times more than tonight.''

The 42-point loss apparently didn't break the team's spirit, as many of the Spartans were buzzing good-naturedly among themselves as they returned to their hotel.

Perry, by contrast, slouched into one of the van's window seats and uttered nary a sound throughout the 35-minute ride from Malibu into downtown Los Angeles.

At least nobody was still shouting his name. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Norfolk State's Kevin Perry struggled Friday with Pepperdine's top

defender, a hostile crowd and another night of poor shooting.

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