ROCK HILL - He ran away when his mother disciplined him as a teenager, usually to the crime-infested streets of his neighborhood in Akron, Ohio, where he had a habit of finding trouble.

He ran away when his teachers or principal at Akron's East High disciplined him in school; he missed 160 days during his 10th grade season, forcing him to repeat the grade.

He ran away when his basketball coach at Seward Community College disciplined him for a bad attitude; he quit after an argument over playing time and transferred to Howard College.

Winthrop forward Greg Lewis, it seems, has been running away most of his life.

He almost ran away again this season when Eagles' coach Gregg Marshall told him not to come out for the second half of a late-season game at Birmingham Southern. He was showered and dressed and ready to leave all that he had accomplished behind.

He didn't, thanks to sound advice from an old friend.

And he's not running from today's challenge in the first round of the NCAA South Regional in Greenville, where the 16th-seeded Eagles (19-11) will face No. 1 seed and defending national champion Duke (29-3).

"I had to go through so much adversity and so many obstacles to get to this point in my life," Lewis said during a break at Winthrop Coliseum. "When things went bad in my life before I would just run from it. I wouldn't try to face it.

"This means a lot to me. I'm happy to be here because there were always doubters who told me I wouldn't make it. In a way, this is a measuring stick for me to see where I am."

Lewis, the Big South Conference's player of the year, will be paired against Duke All-American Mike Dunleavy in the 10:10 p.m. game at the Bi-Lo Center. It will be a collision of two worlds as far apart as the RPI of their schools -- Duke No. 4, Winthrop No. 217.

Lewis (6-6, 220) came from a single-parent home that was so poor he often went without meals and hot water. He spent much of his youth around drug addicts and criminals. He wasn't a good student and didn't start playing organized basketball until his junior year in high school.

Had Winthrop not accepted him three years ago, his dream of earning a college degree and playing in the NCAA Tournament likely would have ended then.

Dunleavy (6-9, 220) grew up the All-American boy, living in the All-American home as the son of an NBA coach and player.

He went to the best basketball camps and the best schools. He was a McDonald's and Parade All-American coming out of high school and had his choice of colleges. He's won three straight Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament titles and a national championship.

"It's going to be a challenge for me just to see how different we are -- on the court and mentally," Lewis said. "I wanted to play against Duke. That's the dream team everybody wants to play against regardless of if it's a Division II team.

"Everybody knows Duke. Duke is the best team in the world. You can prove yourself pretty much."

TOUGH ADJUSTMENT

Winthrop fans were celebrating the school's fourth consecutive Big South Conference Tournament title in a hotel room in Roanoke, Va., two weeks ago when Lewis entered. He walked past a cooler of beer to grab three cokes and a pizza, then disappeared to his room to celebrate with teammates.

"He was walking me to my car afterwards when one of the kids said, 'Hey, Greg, are you coming to the party?' " John Saucier said. "He patted the kid on the head and said, 'No, son. I don't party.' "I said, 'Whoa!' That was amazing. Greg was never one to walk away from a party when we first met."

Saucier, an Akron minister and AAU basketball coach, met Lewis in 1996. Lewis was completing his last year of basketball eligibility at East High, where he led the city in scoring. He didn't have enough credits to graduate and had a GPA, according to Saucier, of 0.9 on a scale of 4.0.

Unable to convince Lewis to take the graduate exit exam necessary for a degree, Saucier pointed him to Medina (Ohio) Christian Academy. It was a tough adjustment.

Lewis was the only black student in the school and the only black player in the conference. He had to get up at 5:30 a.m. each day and take a two-hour bus ride to get there. For somebody who missed 160 hours of class as a 10th-grader, that wasn't easy.

"For the first week I was, 'Nah, man. I can't stay here no more. I've got to go home,' " Lewis said. "It wasn't that I was racist. I just wasn't used to that type of environment."

He was ready to run, but Saucier wouldn't let him. He arranged for tutoring. He arranged for meals because Lewis, whose idea of a good home-cooked meal was cereal, couldn't afford the school lunches.

He helped him find clothes that would meet the school's dress code. He opened his home for Lewis on days Lewis didn't want to make the long ride home. And as fate would have it, he wound up coaching Lewis.

Two days before the season began, the Medina coach quit. The only person available on short notice was the girls' coach, who was Rich Dauer, the third-base coach for the Kansas City Royals.

Dauer asked Saucier to be his assistant, then elevated him to head coach when he left for spring training with nine games left in the season. Lewis said that was one of the best years of his life.

He didn't worry about getting into trouble, because he spent more time on the bus than he did the streets. He excelled academically, earning a 2.9 GPA to complete his degree.

He also had fun on the court, averaging 29.6 points a game. He never felt out of place on the court because of his skin color, saying the only teasing he took was for combing his hair too much.

He also stopped running away -- at least for a while.

"What he was looking for was something to run to," said Saucier, the founder of Team JAM, Jesus' Athletic Ministry. "He was really missing something. He was looking for help."

KING OF THE COURT

On Lewis' left arm is an imposing tattoo of a lion spinning a basketball on its paw. Lewis drew the tattoo himself when he was in junior college. He was going to have "King of the Court" tattooed above it, but didn't because there was a tournament by the same name back home.

"Sometimes, when I'm feeling good, I feel like the king of the court," Lewis said.

But like the lion, Lewis is unpredictable. His mood will swing so fast that not even those closest to him always understand what's happening.

Marshall often refers to his star as a hot air balloon, saying there are times he needs to be grounded and times he needs to be released to take the Eagles to heights they've never been.

"Sometimes I get over-intensified about things and just go off," Lewis said. "Sometimes I can get way out there, and I need to be brought back to reality."

That happened at halftime of a Feb. 7 game at Birmingham-Southern. Marshall was unhappy with the way his team played in the first half, and Lewis took much of the locker room speech personally.

When Lewis challenged Marshall's authority, Marshall felt he had no choice but to tell his best player to stay behind when the team returned to the court. Confused, Lewis showered and dressed. But before running he called Saucier, who was listening to the game on his computer.

"That was a very pivotal time," Lewis said. "He just talked to me about it and reminding me how far I came. He said don't let something like that mess it up, when all you have to do is go back out there and cheer for your teammates and go on."

So Lewis put his sweaty uniform back on and returned to the bench, where he cheered his teammates to a 63-56 victory.

Lewis wishes he'd had somebody like Saucier around earlier in his life.

"I used to get kicked out of school all the time because of the authority," he said. "If someone said something smart to me, I just felt I had to say something back. I felt like that was embarrassing to me, like, 'How can you do this to me and I can't say nothing back?' "

Lewis said he would have taken the same stand against Marshall had it not been for Saucier. "I was just ready to go home," he said. "I felt like I didn't deserve the stuff that was being said to me. I was fed up. If I had walked, it may have all just ended right there. I may not be here today."

PICKING A SCHOOL

Marshall was sitting at his desk three years ago when his phone rang. It was Saucier, who was down to the last school on his list of 31 that might be a good fit for Lewis.

"The funny thing is Winthrop is listed as a Christian school on the Internet, so I thought it had a Christian college background," Saucier said of the former all-women's school. "When I called and asked about that they said, 'No, it's not a Christian school, but we have a former head coach from Liberty (a Christian school) as an assistant."

Lewis wanted to go to South Alabama, but his mother, Brenda, wouldn't sign the letter of intent. "She thought they were trying to buy me because I got into a little trouble with them taking me shopping when I was on my recruiting visit," Lewis said.

So Lewis settled for Winthrop, which was coming off its first trip to the NCAA Tournament.

He spent the first summer in school working on his grades to become eligible. He finished the first season as the team's leading scorer (15.7 ppg.) and rebounder (6.7 rpg.). He was voted the most valuable player of the Big South Tournament after collecting 18 points and 18 rebounds in the title game.

He was given a medical redshirt last season because of a foot injury similar to the one that ended the career of NFL running back Errict Rhett.

He returned this season to lead the team in scoring (15.6 ppg.) and rebounding (10.4 rpg.) again. He also was voted the MVP of the conference tournament again after collecting his 18th double-double of the season.

This past week he was named honorable mention All-American. He is on schedule to graduate with a degree in business management in May.

One day, when he's through with basketball, he would like to work with kids and take care of his mother, who has multiple sclerosis.

"Somebody at one time said I would never make it in life," Lewis said. "I think about that all the time. At one point, if I would have kept going the way I was going I wouldn't have made it. "That's my motivation."

That's why when people tell him there's no way Winthrop, a 34-point underdog, can beat Duke, he smiles and politely disagrees.

"I know what I have to do," he said. "I know the expectations of me and my teammates. We know they are superior talent-wise. We just have to go out and give it our best shot. We have nothing to lose."

And no reason to run away.