SITE FAMILIAR, RIVAL NOT, FOR BUFFALOES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 3, 1993                   TAG: 9303030207
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-10   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: M.J. DOUGHERTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium
SITE FAMILIAR, RIVAL NOT, FOR BUFFALOES
When Floyd County begins Region C basketball tournament play tonight at 8:30, it will know a lot about the court. It qualified for the regionals by winning the Mountain Empire tournament at Christiansburg High - the regional site.
What the Buffaloes (17-6) won't know much about is their opponent, the Northwood Panthers (21-5).
"I didn't want to jinx anything," coach Alan Cantrell said after Floyd won the district tournament to go to the regional.
But lack of knowledge about the opponent hasn't worried the Buffaloes. Instead, they pointed to their district-tournament win as the catalyst.
"We just have to go out and be intense like we were tonight [the district finals]," said Jason Light, the 6-foot-5 junior who led Floyd in scoring (21.1 ppg), rebounding (8.5 rpg) and shooting accuracy (66.6 percent) during the regular season. "It's what has worked for us. We don't know much about them. So we've just got to play intense."
That intensity has helped Floyd County win three post-season games - one more than in last year's 20-4 team. And it needed all those wins to make it back to the Region C tournament for the third year in a row.
Now the Buffaloes' situation is the reverse of what faced them last year: Even though they lost the district tournament final, they had earned a bye to the regional semifinals because of their regular-season district title. But the chance to scout their tournament foe didn't help as Covington eliminated Floyd.
So Floyd County is going without much advance knowledge - but with momentum. "We just have to go out there and hopefully do the same thing we did tonight [the district finals]," said Michael Hylton, a 5-9 senior who was Timesland's leading three-point shooter (almost 48 percent).
". . . We don't know anything about the team going in. So for the regionals, we'll just have to play hard and just try to win."
By tip-off, Cantrell plans to have more information on Northwood. But Cantrell already has some idea of what the Panthers will be like, based on their reputation: "From what I know about coach , they always play a man-to-man defense and try to apply pressure from that. They always have scrappy kids and hard workers. They'll know how to do the do a good job."
Among the scrappy Panthers are John Crigger, a 6-3 forward who leads them in scoring at 17 ppg., and Jon Griffin, the point-guard who quarterbacks the squad, just like he did for the football team.
Northwood likes to play an up-tempo game and generally scores in the 70-point range. It won the Hogoheegee District tournament by beating regular-season champ Lebanon 65-62. It clinched the regional berth with a 79-70 win over George Wythe in the semifinals.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB