Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 15, 1993 TAG: 9302150079
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
DUO HAS TECH WOMEN IN METRO LEAD
Lisa Griffith and Jenny Root can carve somebody more ways than one.Leave Griffith alone on the perimeter, and the 6-foot-3 center on Virginia Tech's women's basketball team can gobble up a 3-pointer.
Give Root, a 6-3 center-forward, some room inside and a rebound or a basket is gravy.
Or, leave your flank open and either of the two best friends can slice you with a zinger - which, if their subject is each other, isn't hard. Except for their dry sense of humor, they have almost nothing in common.
"I'm always giving her a hard time about Beckley [W.Va.] being such a small town," said Root, from comparatively big-city Pensacola, Fla.
Griffith, a Garth Brooks devotee, brags that she's gotten Root in the same music camp "whether she wants to admit it or not," but Griffith says she hasn't embraced Root's faves REM and U2.
Root did admit once going to a "country night" with Griffith at a local establishment.
"She's really preppie," Griffith said. "We bust on each other a lot."
Opponents aren't spared, and that's one reason the Hokies are 15-5 this season and 5-2 in the Metro Conference, tied for the league lead with Southern Mississippi, which beat Tech Saturday. Today, the Hokies complete a Metro road swing with a game at Tulane.
Root leads the Hokies in rebounding (7.9 per game) and field-goal percentage (56); Griffith is one of the Hokies' top 3-point shooters (33.3 percent) and the Metro's leading free-throw shooter (84.6 percent). Root averages 12.8 points per game, Griffith 12.0. Each has 30 blocked shots, tied for third in the league.
Tech assistant coach Bonnie Henrickson said she thinks Griffith and Root are the best frontcourt tandem in the Metro. If that's so, there's one obvious reason.
"[Jenny] maybe helped Lisa open up a little bit," Henrickson said. "Lisa has helped Jenny mature."
Root agrees. The chatty sophomore and the introverted Griffith were made weightlifting partners in Root's freshman year. The conversation was slow coming, but it did come. In fact, Henrickson said, the pair joked their way through most practices last year.
"It hurt us last year because we goofed around all the time," Root said. "I personally know I didn't improve any last year. I think I know when it's time to goof off and when not, and last year I think I crossed the boundary.
"I almost feel like I wasted a season."
Griffith got serious when she realized she wanted to win in her senior season. Root followed the lead and both have cut the chuckles in practice.
"This year we both took the attitude that we wanted to get better," Root said.
Root's influence helped Griffith become a speak-out player instead of a keep-quiet one.
"She's just so loud," Griffith said. "It kind of brings it out of me. She makes me feel better about myself. Now I'm more vocal on the court."
Root averaged 8.5 points and 4.3 rebounds last year; this year, she says, she gets "ticked off" if she doesn't get 10 rebounds a game. Griffith has gone from attempting 18 3-pointers in her first two years to making 26 of 58 as a junior. She already has 57 attempts this year and has made 19.
That touch, she said, came from shoot-arounds with current Clemson guard Bruce Martin in Beckley. Martin gave her a jump-shooting makeover, and now Griffith is content on the wing.
"I'm definitely not a finesse player [and I don't] have the speed to play outside," Griffith said. "But I do like to shoot threes. It's pretty fun."
It also helps Griffith and Root see court time together, because they don't get in each other's way. They're together off the court, but not too much so - they live in neighboring apartments in Blacksburg.
"I'm in `B', she's in `C'," Root said. "Close enough, I guess."
Root described Griffith as a confidant. The compliment was returned, tongue-in-cheek.
"Jenny's a great friend," Griffith said. "I could ask her to do anything, and she'd do it. I think."