Oak Hill

CLEVELAND - Bill Walton recalled a high school game he played in more than 30 years ago in San Diego. It received lots of hype and was televised locally. After all, Walton was considered the best high school basketball player in the country. "But it wasn't anything like this," Walton said, shaking his head and looking around the Cleveland Convocation Center. Then again, as good as Walton was back then, he wasn't LeBron James. James, the 17-year-old phenom from nearby Akron, was the reason Walton asked to work for ESPN2 during last night's nationally televised game between St. Vincent-St.

The cannon at Gettysburg, as one young officer said, "became things of life - not implements, but comrades." The artillery battle that took place on the first day of fighting played a decisive role in the battle, granting the Union forces the time they needed to regroup and withstand Gen. Robert E. Lee's most serious challenge on Union soil. Artillery soldiers were a unique group serving a vital function in the war. This was something they took pride in, with young officers often declining promotions that would separate them from their guns.

A little rust nearly cost Oak Hill in so many ways. The Warriors, the nation's top-ranked team according to USA Today, weathered a lackadaisical first half before finding their form and defeating Towson Catholic, 72-60, in the final game of the State Farm Roundball Classic at the Towson Center last night. Oak Hill, which hadn't played since Wednesday because of the snowstorm that struck the Mid-Atlantic region, scored 27 points in the third quarter - just seven points less than their entire production in the first half - to outlast the Owls.

MOUTH OF WILSON, Va. - Carmelo Anthony is finally free. Free of the relentless calls from agents looking for his signature on a contract. Free of the movie theaters, video arcades and malls that diverted him from his homework. Free of the colleges that tried to dissuade him from committing to Syracuse. Here, at Oak Hill Academy, where cell phones barely work and the closest mall is 42 miles away in North Carolina, Anthony is free to do the two things that matter to him most: study and play basketball.

MOUTH OF WILSON, Va. - For nearly three decades, books and basketball have developed a symbiotic relationship at Oak Hill Academy, a small boarding school nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwestern Virginia. The boys basketball team has been ranked nationally for the past 18 years and has captured four mythical national championships. One hundred players have moved on from Oak Hill Academy to play at Division I colleges and universities. When people ask school president Ed F. Patton to describe the recipe for success, Patton likes to offer a quote from 1985 alum Rod Strickland.

Former Towson Catholic star Carmelo Anthony leads the nation's top-ranked team to Baltimore to play in the State Farm Roundball Classic at the Towson Center Sunday. Anthony, The Sun's All-Metro Player of the Year last season and a Syracuse recruit, and the Oak Hill Warriors, the four-time reigning national champions who are undefeated at 19-0, will meet Towson Catholic at 8:30 p.m. The Owls (5-10) are led by second-team All-Metro guard Darnell Hopkins. The 4:45 game pits the Miller School of Virginia (10-1)

Mercy freshman Jamie Antonious always considered herself a soccer and lacrosse player, but she has discovered recently that she might be better at something else. Since her indoor track debut two weeks ago, Antonious has posted some impressive results for a first-time runner at 1,600 meters. In her first race, she broke the school record. Her 5:33 shaved 10 seconds off Kristi Korrow's 5:43 mark set in 1998. Antonious also out-distanced her first big-name competition, Maryvale's All-Metro cross country runner, Glenna Sullivan.

Archbishop Spalding, ranked No. 1 in the metro area, ran out of gas in the final quarter against Virginia's Oak Hill Academy, the nation's third-ranked team, losing, 54-38, last night in the semifinals of the Beach Ball Classic in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The Cavaliers (7-4) stayed with Oak Hill (12-1) until the fourth quarter, but foul trouble eventually doomed them. Derrick Snowden and Tremaine Robinson scored 15 each, but Snowden and top defender Darren Johnson fouled out early in the final quarter.

Most high school quarterbacks do not worry about getting kicked off the team for good behavior.But at Oak Hill Academy, the quarterback prays that he does not go the way of the starting offensive line and get freed days before a big game.Oak Hill, near Laurel, is the District of Columbia's maximum-security detention center for violent juvenile delinquents. Almost a third of its inmates are awaiting trial on murder charges or have been convicted of murder. It is also home to what may be the best team in the district's high school football league, the Tigers.