Surprise

Understaffed and, for the first game, mentally unprepared, the Conestoga girls' basketball team went out and captured the Lansdale Catholic Christmas Tournament last weekend. It came as a total surprise to coach Karen Marley, who may come to expect the unexpected from now on. Marley and the Pioneers (5-4), under the impression that their tourney opener wasn't to be played until 6:30 Saturday night, put on a full-scale practice Friday morning that lasted for several hours. Then Marley received a phone call around 2:30 Friday afternoon telling her to make sure that Conestoga was ready for its opener that night.

Surprise, surprise. There might even be a third surprise when it comes to Friday night's South Jersey Group 4 playoff opener between sixth-seeded Washington Township (6-2) and third-seeded Williamstown (7-1). These teams are neighbors, rivals, and key players in what has been a shift in the balance of power in South Jersey's large-school group in the last two years. The first surprise isn't that Williamstown is in the playoffs but that the Braves are home and a high seed and one of the favorites in the tournament.

Flyers center Keith Primeau, who missed most of last season after suffering a concussion, underwent nasal surgery yesterday, team officials said. Sami Kapanen had minor surgery on his right shoulder yesterday, and Simon Gagne is recovering from hip surgery on May 10, the Flyers said. The operations on the two wingers were expected, but Primeau's surgery was a surprise. The 34-year-old center said he had been feeling pressure behind his nose for about two years. The surgery was performed at Cooper Hospital in Camden, and Primeau said he felt better immediately.

Because his team so often wins by blowout scores, Swarthmore Academy coach Mark Jordan can take advantage of huge leads to give his neophyte reserves some playing time. But winning games easily can have a negative side - it can lead to getting caught by surprise when a more competitive opponent comes to play. Mercy Vocational threatened to be that opponent Thursday. But with the help of Jordan's reserves, particularly junior guard Andre Jackson, the Knights were able to defeat their visitors, 87-74, in the non- league game.

There was no shock and no surprise, but there was sadness and some anger among Bethlehem Steel Corp. workers affected by yesterday's announcement that three divisions here would be sold or closed. For the most part, there was a stoic acceptance of what many workers felt was the inevitable result of the company's long-range planning. "It was no surprise to me. It was just a matter of time, and we've been hearing about it for a long time," said Keith Heffelfinger, 39, of Freemansburg, an employee of one of the divisions, Bethforge Inc. "I'm definitely going to miss it," said Heffelfinger, a 17-year employee, as he finished his shift at the giant steel mill, which stretches five miles along the Lehigh River on the southern edge of this old town.

Prominent black Baptist pastors in Philadelphia - already sharp critics of their national leader - say the Rev. Henry Lyons' indictment in Florida is neither a surprise nor a sign the National Baptist Convention U.S.A. Inc.'s turmoil will end soon. They say it's time for those who have protected Lyons to speak up and show him the door. The Rev. William Shaw, pastor of White Rock Baptist in West Philadelphia, said he has been considering a race for the presidency in 1999 - he finished third to Lyons in 1994 - but the indictment won't affect his plans.

When Greg Van Brill, a freshman at Gloucester County College, qualified for the National Junior College Wrestling Championships, he was not thinking seriously about winning a national title. However, Van Brill, who captured the 189-pound New Jersey state championship last year for Clearview, went out and won one, anyway, taking the 190-pound crown last weekend at College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Ill. "I didn't expect to win at all," said Van Brill, who finished the season at 25-3-1 by going 5-0 in the tournament.

Recalling both Casablanca and The Unbearable Lightness of Being, director Rolf Schubel's 1999 German-Hungarian affair, Gloomy Sunday, is a rich, romantic melodrama that surprised audiences when it opened in the spring. (And surprised theater owners, who had an unexpected hit on their hands.) Back for a return engagement, this beautiful 1930s-40s love story, which takes the song popularized by Billie Holiday for its title - and for a key element of its plot - is about a cafe pianist who falls for the cafe owner's lover, the cafe's waitress.

Boston College outhustled and outshot No. 18 Louisville, upsetting a team struggling to adjust to personnel changes. The Eagles, a preseason pick to finish near the bottom of the 13-team Big East, never trailed last night and won, 81-67, at Newton, Mass., with a strong inside game led by Danya Abrams's 30 points. "One of the things we talked to our kids about was a genuine lack of respect our kids have gotten, and rightly so because we struggled last year," Eagles coach Jim O'Brien said.

Capt. Robert Deeds, head of the 15th Police District at Harbison Avenue and Levick Street since February, retired abruptly from the police force on Tuesday. Inspector William McDonough, commander of the Northeast Police Division and Deeds' immediate supervisor, said he had not expected Deeds' decision. "I was surprised. It's a shame to see someone go who knows his job," McDonough said. A replacement was to have been named Friday, when citywide command reassignments were to be announced.

Hatboro-Horsham's Pete Moore says outfielder Casey Saverio is pretty much a human sponge. "He soaks everything up," the coach said. "His baseball instincts are phenomenal. " Saverio, a 5-foot-10, 180-pound senior, is the latest in his family to star on the diamond. His brothers, Sean and Brett, played at La Salle and Hatboro-Horsham, respectively. The boys' father, Lee, is an assistant for the Hatters. Previously, he was head coach at Cheltenham High, La Salle University, and St. Joseph's University.

On the day when, at long last, the reincarnated Barnes museum opened to the public, the collection of visitors was so strange a conglomeration that the eccentric Albert C. Barnes might actually have approved. Early Saturday morning downstairs in the auditorium, a private symposium, sponsored by Christie's, was held for about 200 art collectors, museum directors, educators, and auction-house representatives - the very sort of cuff-linked and pedigreed swells Barnes disdained. The first speaker, John Henry Merryman, an emeritus professor at Stanford University, lamented the growth of cultural nationalism, which keeps many important art objects sequestered in "dead storage," like the 30,000 objects unearthed in Greece during preparations for the 2004 Olympics.

No Big Three meant one big problem for Miami, and one very big win for Indiana. David West scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, George Hill added 15, and the Indiana Pacers took home-court advantage away from Miami by beating the Heat, 78-75, in Game 2 of the teams' Eastern Conference semifinal series Tuesday night in Miami. LeBron James scored 28 points for Miami and Dwyane Wade finished with 24, but both missed big chances for the Heat late. James missed two free throws with 54.3 seconds left and Miami down one, and Wade was short on a layup that would have tied the game with 16 seconds remaining.

The Bucks County street was choked with cars and a TV news van Friday. Police cordoned off the end of the block. But inside the colonial on the cul de sac in Feasterville, it was just another calm morning for Stacey and Brendan Carey and their 11-month-old sextuplets and 2-year-old daughter. Bam went the front door. Brendan Carey asked Stacey to get it. Emeril Lagasse stood there in a white chef's coat. Behind him was a camera crew from ABC's Good Morning America, along with Warminster's William Tennent High marching band, neighbors, and friends.

Maybe he was just trying to put together a big surprise for Mother's Day. John Grzyminski found himself behind bars Thursday, a day after cops confiscated three pipe bombs from his Warrington home — including one discovered in the kitchen by his mother. Grzyminski, 50, had "some sort of domestic verbal dispute" with his mom, Catherine Wilson, before she found that small explosive device in the house, on Saddle Drive near Carriage Way, said Special Agent Steve Bartholomew, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Nearly two years after the Federal Reserve began requiring banks to get customers' permission before subjecting them to controversial overdraft practices, many account-holders are still surprised when they are charged overdraft fees for debit-card purchases or ATM withdrawals that could simply have been declined, says a new study financed by the Pew Charitable Trusts. The Pew study found that more than half of those hit with overdraft fees did not believe they had opted in to the policies, which enable banks to approve purchases or withdrawals for customers short of funds and then charge them fees for the transactions.

TALLADEGA, Ala. - The leader on the last lap isn't supposed to win at Talladega Superspeedway. Everybody knows that. Brad Keselowski disagrees, and he showed how to do it Sunday with a calculated plan that sent him to Victory Lane. Keselowski used a big push from Kyle Busch to pass leader Matt Kenseth, and after leaving the Daytona 500 winner in their wake, Keselowski staved off Busch's attempt to snatch the win. Using a move Keselowski said he had dreamed about, he held on for his second win of the season and second at Talladega.

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan - On a swift, secretive trip to the war zone, President Obama declared Tuesday night that after years of sacrifice, the U.S. combat role in Afghanistan is winding down just as it has already ended in Iraq. "We can see the light of a new day," he said on the anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death and in the midst of his own reelection campaign. "Our goal is to destroy al-Qaeda, and we are on a path to do exactly that," Obama said in an unusual speech to America broadcast from an air base halfway around the world.

Just as in It's a Wonderful Life , a "cash mob" of about 100 people crammed into the Newtown Hardware House on Saturday morning to help bail out the store and its popular owner. "It's like George Bailey - everything George did was for everyone in the town," said Michelle Knobloch, referring to the Frank Capra movie. "This is all for Dave Callahan. He is quietly philanthropic and giving in so many ways. " Callahan, who has run what he calls Bucks County's oldest hardware store for 27 years, represents "the integrity of this borough," Knobloch said.

In Friday's issue, parts of this story were garbled or left out because of a production error. The entire story is reprinted here. Outside her Mount Ephraim elementary school, little Kristen Coffman saw scores of classmates and teachers holding tiny flags - and two fire trucks with a much larger banner suspended between tall ladders. A motorcade with wailing sirens and loud rumbling motorcycles passed beneath it and pulled up a few feet away. Thursday was a big day for Mary Bray Elementary - and for Kristen, who thought she had been chosen to give a bouquet of red, white, and blue flowers to Mount Ephraim Mayor Joe Wolk as part of a military appreciation day. Instead, the freckled 8-year-old was stunned to see her mother, Army Lt. Candice Bujak, briefly home from Afghanistan after nearly a year.