Small chance, you say? Not THIS Mission

At 4 feet 11 inches and 95 pounds, Huong Vu doesn't look like a typical athlete. A soccer player, maybe. A basketball player, definitely not.

So when the guard for the New Mission high school girls' basketball team steps onto the court and gets the ball for a three-point shot, most defenders will back off, as if to say: "Go ahead, I don't think you can make it."

Vu doesn't hesitate. It's her chance to prove everyone wrong. She springs into the air, releasing the ball in a gentle, lazy arc. Her shot is so soft that when it goes in, as it often does, the basket seems to cradle the ball -- the way a net captures a butterfly.

And when that happens, Vu has just proved everyone wrong.

Like the defenders who back off Vu, a lot of people have doubted the New Mission girls' basketball program.

"We get no respect," sighs coach Cory McCarthy, 30, who came to New Mission four years ago and is dean of students. He has just seven players on the roster -- New Mission's total enrollment is 260.

"Other coaches will say, 'You guys can't beat our team.' They'll tell my kids, 'Good luck getting into college at New Mission.' "

This year, McCarthy's players have been doing both. In their second year in the Boston City League, they were 16 -3 as of last Wednesday and have qualified for the MIAA state tournament that begins Friday. Their success has garnered the attention of college scouts; the two seniors on the team have already been accepted, one to play basketball. Vu, a junior, has regular contact with schools wanting her to play.

For many of McCarthy's players, basketball has given them a chance to capitalize on opportunities that, for one reason or another, they didn't have before joining the team.

It's easy to understand why people have dismissed New Mission. Tucked into a side street in the heart of Mission Hill, the school takes up just 1 1/2 floors of a three-story building. A separate elementary and middle school share the same space.

There's no full-court gym, so McCarthy rents out the Tobin Community Center for his team's home games. And there's nowhere to practice--the closest his players come is running up and down the stairs of the school.

Last year, McCarthy got a bus; two years ago, he got numbered uniforms. Before that, his team took the T and wore mismatched jerseys with numbers taped to the back.

"We do the most with the least," McCarthy said.

As a small pilot school open to all city-area students, New Mission is the second or third school for some students who have been expelled from other schools.

"We take the kids that other schools don't want," McCarthy says.

Brittany White was one of those kids. A 5-foot-7-inch senior center with cinnamon-streaked hair, White is New Mission's star player. She averages 16 points and 14 rebounds a game and was recently accepted to play basketball at Regis College. Three years ago, she was kicked out of Cathedral High School for getting into fights.

"My attitude was so bad," recalled White, 18. "I didn't listen to anybody."

After transferring to New Mission and joining the basketball team, she soon came around.

"She completely changed her attitude," McCarthy says of White, who has gotten all A's and B's this semester and speaks in a soft, deliberate tone.

On her right shoulder is a tattoo of a basketball, with a B (for Brittany) in the middle and The Reason below. White doesn't see basketball as an end-all; she wants to be a crime scene investigator after college.

Sophomore Tieasia Kemp was kicked out of four schools before coming to New Mission. So far she's stayed out of trouble.

Freshman point guard Niesha Kelley was a below-average middle-school student, but recently got her first-ever A, in math.

Senior shooting guard Ronee Budd is on track to be the school's valedictorian, and wants to be a social worker.

For all his players' successes, McCarthy admits that his team, and the school, has its problems. He says he's had to suspend players, and breaks up fights between students almost daily. "It's not a perfect story here," he says.

Like playing basketball, neighborhood violence is part of the routine. New Mission is located just blocks from Heath Street gang territory. Budd and Kelley have relatives who've been murdered; guard Bianca Flores was best friends with slain former H- Block gang leader and peace activist Jahmol Norfleet. There's random violence: on Jan. 26, there was a shooting at 3 p.m. at a youth center less than a mile from New Mission. No one was hurt.

The day before, New Mission played its best game of the year. Led by White's 13 points and 16 rebounds, it handed Burke High coach John Rice his first City League loss in 13 years, a 68-61 win.

Vu scored 22 points, hitting 5 three-pointers. When she's shooting that well, she said, "It feels like everything can just go right for you . . . the hoop feels so big and the ball feels so small."

A lot has gone wrong for some of the girls of New Mission, but playing basketball has made many things go right. It's made the hoop feel that much bigger.