Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 19, 1992 TAG: 9203190109
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-10 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RAY COX SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Medium
Cindy Martin, Pulaski County High's basketball power forward, once learned a great one from her father, Donald Martin.
He taught her how to be taller.
Well, not exactly to be taller but to play taller. Being 5-feet-10 and operating out of the low post, that's a valuable skill.
"With my strength, I can keep the basketball at the full extent of my arms and just use my finger tips when I shoot," she said. "With a little jump when I shoot, I'm just as tall as some other players."
In the greater scheme of things, Martin's size has been a non-issue. The bottom line is that she's had a big impact on Cougars' hoops.
In her third year on the varsity, Martin, a senior, has blossomed into the team's leading scorer at 17 points per game and its second-leading rebounder with eight per game. She has shot a highly-respectable 54 percent from the floor and 76 percent from the free throw line.
Martin's skill and consistency are part of the reason that the Cougars will be playing in their second-consecutive Group AAA state tournament. Pulaski County takes on Petersburg in the second game of a semifinal double-header today at the University of Virginia's University Hall. Tipoff will be approximately 2:45 p.m.
Cave Spring plays Phoebus in the first game. The winners meet 7 p.m. Saturday for the state championship.
"Cindy Martin has made herself into a good ballplayer," Cougars coach Rod Reedy said. "She's been as dedicated and has worked as hard as anybody we've had here."
Martin was a pretty average player until the summer between her eighth-grade and freshman seasons.
"That's when I really started to learn how to play the game," she said.
The two biggest influences were her attendance at the Radford University camp and the work she did with her father, a former player at Giles High and for a short time a walk-on on Virginia Tech's team.
"I've been taught a lot of post moves at camp," she said. "My father also helped me out a lot."
Somehow it's appropriate that the elder Martin is a dentist. When Cindy sets up on the block, she's as hard to extract as a particularly stubborn wisdom tooth.
The danger Martin presents to the opposition was fully evident when the Cougars beat West Springfield 44-42 last week in the state quarterfinals. Martin scored 16 of her 18 points in the first half and was virtually unstoppable during that stretch.
She'll have to give the Cougars more of the same today. This is Petersburg's third-straight trip to the state and no doubt they won't have forgotten that Martin and point guard Terri Garland were terrific when the Cougars prevailed 52-45 when the teams met in the quarterfinals last year.
Pulaski County eventually lost to James Madison in the title game.
If Pulaski County survives this game, then a possibile rematch with archrival Cave Spring may be in the offing.
Should that happen, it will be the sixth time the teams have met this year.
"I hope they aren't even thinking about that," Reedy said. "We have an awfully tough game [today] to worry about."
by CNB