IT'S THE GAME OF HIS LIFE; WOOTTEN FACES A COACH WHO ALSO HAD TRANSPLANT

In 42 seasons as basketball coach at DeMatha Catholic High School, Coach Morgan Wootten has a 1,143-170 record. Included are some games considered the most significant ever played at the high school level.

Wootten, a man who knows history and may make it by finishing as the all-time winningest high school coach, thinks Game No. 1,314 will be among the special ones.

On Thursday night, the 21-0 Stags play Anderson High of Indiana at MCI Center. In the summer of 1996, Wootten received a liver transplant that saved his life. Unknown to Wootten at the time was that earlier that summer, Anderson's coach, Ron Hecklinski, was saved by a liver transplant.

"This is one game that because it is being played, for sure, lives will be saved," Wootten said. "You can't for sure say that about hardly any game in athletics."

Through more than 40 years, Wootten built DeMatha into one of the nation's most recognized high school basketball programs. But Thursday will be the first time it has played a team from Indiana. Anderson successfully petitioned to the Indiana governing body to exceed the state's 300-mile travel limit for this game. Among the reasons permission was granted is that some proceeds from the four-game DeMatha Invitational will benefit the Mid-Atlantic Coalition for Donation.

Wootten said Thursday's game shares some of the characteristics of the games he lists among his most memorable.

DeMatha enters ranked No. 1 in the Washington area and No. 2 nationally by USA Today. Anderson enters 11-1, ranked No. 1 in Indiana and No. 14 nationally.

"We have played teams from so many states in the union and now we are going to play one from one of the most legendary, storied states in high school basketball," Wootten said. "It's almost like your coaching career wouldn't be complete if you didn't get to coach against an Indiana team."

DeMatha's breakthrough in terms of national recognition came in 1964 against Power Memorial of New York. Because Power boasted 7-foot-2 junior sensation Lew Alcindor (who later changed his name and became an NBA Hall of Famer as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), Wootten asked DeMatha's administration to hold the game at the University of Maryland's Cole Field House.

Cole sold out for the first time with more than half of the 12,500 fans buying tickets on the day of the game.

Wootten's strategy for beating Power was to stop everyone but Alcindor, and see if the towering center could win the game by himself. Alcindor scored 38 and Power won, 65-62.

"I remember a timeout with a little over a minute to go and we were down by a point or two," Wootten said. "The guy on the loudspeaker said, `Ladies and gentlemen, regardless of who wins this game, I think you will agree we are watching the best two high school basketball teams in America.' And there was a standing ovation. That sent chills up everybody's spine."

The only game that Wootten personally ranks ahead of that loss was the rematch with Power the following year. This time, Wootten incorporated defensive strategies throughout the season that DeMatha would need against Power. At the suggestion of assistant coach [and current DeMatha principal] John Moylan, Wootten had Sid Catlett, a 6-8 forward, hold a tennis racket during practice to simulate Alcindor's shot-blocking ability.

In the rematch before another sellout at Cole, Alcindor was limited to 16 points with Catlett and Bob Whitmore and guarding him. Catlett had 13 points, forward Bernard Williams had 12 and DeMatha won, 46-43, ending Power's winning streak at 71 games.

"The biggest thing about the two Power Memorial games is that it took high school basketball to another level," Wootten said. "It became a national exposure sport because of those two games."

The longest game Wootten ever coached was against Lake Charles (La.), the host of a holiday tournament in 1978. The game went to five overtimes and Sidney Lowe, now an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers, played every minute.

"As a coach, in a game that long, you run out of things to say," Wootten said. "After all the timeouts of a close game in regulation, then all the breaks between overtime -- you have already said everything twice. . . . I told them we would stay all night until we got the job done right."

DeMatha won, 98-94.

Against Long Island Lutheran in 1968, DeMatha trailed by 23 points at the start of the fourth quarter. With a suffocating full-court press, the Stags allowed just five points in the last eight minutes and won in regulation, 71-68.

One of Wootten's sentimental favorites is the one he calls the "James Brown Game," although Brown, now a sportscaster for Fox, did not play.

DeMatha faced McKinley of Northeast Washington in the 1969 Knights of Columbus postseason tournament final. McKinley, then the top-ranked team in the nation, had defeated the Stags and standout Brown, 68-55, earlier in the season. But during a tournament semifinal, Brown collapsed from exhaustion while on the bench. Doctors determined the recruiting process had taken its toll on Brown and he would have to rest for a few days.

"I sneaked out of the hospital and watched from the stands," said Brown. "I saw my empty seat on the bench with my warm-up draped over it in my honor. Those guys went out there and put on a phenomenal performance."

DeMatha routed McKinley, 95-69, with Mark Edwards taking Brown's place at center and Ray Hite scoring 33 points.

"When the game was over I jumped down out of the stands and everybody looked at me saying, `What are you doing here?' " Brown said.

Wootten said the one thing most of the great games in his career have in common is that they seem to "take on a life of their own" because of their magnitude and atmosphere.

"I can really feel that happening with this game against Anderson," said Wootten. "There is just a groundswell because of all the unusual circumstances surrounding it."

In 42 seasons as boys basketball coach at DeMatha High in Hyattsville, Morgan Wootten has taken his teams to a 1,143-170 record, including 21-0 this season. Wootten said last week that Thursday's game against Anderson of Indiana will rank among his 10 most memorable games. Here, in order, are the games he selected as the other nine:

1. DeMatha 46, Power Memorial 43, January 1965. DeMatha limits Lew Alcindor to 16 points, giving the future NBA star (as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) his first high school loss and ending Power's 71-game winning streak.

2. Power Memorial 65, DeMatha 62, January 1964. Maryland's Cole Field House is sold out for the first time. Lew Alcindor scores 38, but the competitive game earns DeMatha national recognition.

3. DeMatha 95, McKinley 69, March 1969. DeMatha wins despite playing without its top player, (future broadcaster) James Brown, who collapsed from exhaustion the night before the game.

4. DeMatha 72, Dunbar 71, January 1991. Trailing by 18 in the third quarter, DeMatha wins City Title on Vaughn Jones's leaning buzzer-beater to complete 30-0 season.

5. DeMatha 76, Dunbar (Balt.) 73, December 1983. DeMatha ends Dunbar's 59-game winning streak on Danny Ferry's free throws at the end. DeMatha finished the season ranked No. 1 nationally; Dunbar finished No. 2.

6. Dunbar (Balt.) 85, DeMatha 71, February 1973. At the Baltimore Civic Arena, Dunbar's Skip Wise was outstanding against a DeMatha team led by (future NBA star) Adrian Dantley.

7. DeMatha 71, Long Island Lutheran 68, February 1968. Long Island led by 23 after three quarters. DeMatha applied a full-court press, limited the hosts to five fourth-quarter points to win.

8. DeMatha 98, Lake Charles (La.) 94 (5 overtimes), December 1978. In the longest game Wootten has ever coached, sophomore Bob Ferry (Danny's brother) scores 25 points in his first varsity game.

9. DeMatha 57, St. John's 56, March 1958. In his first season, Wootten defeats the person he considers his mentor, St. John's Coach Joe Gallagher. St. John's -- where Wootten had been an assistant for three seasons -- had defeated DeMatha by 40 points earlier in the season.