BASKETBALL DRAMA SHOOTS, BUT DOESN'T REALLY SCORE.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

The acting's good. The athletics impress. The messages are admirable.

And I didn't buy a minute of ``Crossover,'' this week's inspirational sports movie. Too bad, because it's about examining what ``winning'' really means, not just blindly, underdoggedly achieving it. But the wisdom writer-director Preston A. Whitmore II imparts proves just as platitudinous as ``no pain, no gain'' and ``winning is the only thing.''

Actually, ``Crossover'' could've used a little more sports action in place of some overwrought melodrama. The game here is streetball, basketball with fewer rules and more showboating. Whitmore messes up most of the hoops footage with tricky camera work and jerky step-printing, but there are still some amazing moves to enjoy (real stars of the streetball scene, like Phillip ``Hot Sauce'' Champion, are mixed in with the cast).

There are only a handful of sequences, though. Most of the movie's time is taken up by the story of two childhood friends who just happen to both be roundball wizards. Tech (the charismatic Anthony Mackie, currently seen to excellent effect in ``Half Nelson'') is an ex-con struggling to earn his GED. Noah (Wesley Jonathan) lives outside the 'hood with his well-off grandmother, drives a flashy new motorcycle and has a basketball scholarship to UCLA, where he plans to study medicine.

Vaughn (Wayne Brady), a former agent who now stages underground streetball matches around Detroit, wants to steer Noah into the NBA. Nothing doing, the future doctor says, though quick pro money sounds mighty good to Noah's conveniently pregnant new girlfriend Vanessa (``America's Next Top Model'' winner Eva Pigford). Tech would love to be thought of as having the same potential, but he has to settle for the support of his own hot new girlfriend, Eboni (Alecia Fears).

A trip to L.A. tests both couples' commitment and the guys' long- standing friendship. Then really bad things happen.

While he certainly doesn't paint a false picture of urban paradise, Whitmore studiously avoids a lot of the pathologies -- drugs, gangs, gun violence -- usually found in these kinds of movie environments. Most everyone in the picture is pretty decent, if you can get past their selfishness and self-pity. There are betrayals and dark secrets, but good intentions and, yes, outstanding talent tend to overcome adversity and beat the devil out of temptation.

And it all feels as formulaic as winning the big game right at the buzzer. Come to think of it, something like that happens in ``Crossover,'' too.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

CROSSOVER - Two stars

(PG-13: mild violence, language, adult situations)

Starring: Anthony Mackie, Wesley Jonathan, Wayne Brady, Eva Pigford, Alecia Fears.

Director: Preston A. Whitmore II.

Running time: 1 hr. 35 min.

Playing: In wide release.

In a nutshell: Well-meaning drama about Detroit street basketballers never feels authentic.

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LiL JJ has hoop dreams in the Detroit-set basketball story ``Crossover.''