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

DATE: SUNDAY, November 14, 1993                   TAG: 9311140161
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C-13   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: M.J. DOUGHERTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FORT CHISWELL                                LENGTH: Medium

FLOYD COUNTY ROMPS 60-31

For Floyd County, 60 points against Shawsville on Saturday night matched the Buffaloes' season low.

Still, it was good enough for Floyd County to defeat the Shawnees 60-31 in the final of the Mountain Empire District tournament.

Both teams advance to the Region C tournament, which begins Tuesday night at Fort Chiswell High School. Floyd County (23-1) plays James River in the opening game. Shawsville (15-8) meets Northwood in the nightcap. The semifinals are Thursday, and the final is Saturday.

The Buffaloes started slowly Saturday night, scoring a season-low 12 points in the first quarter.

"It was nerves," said Floyd County's Lynette Nolley, who scored seven of her game-high 19 points in the period. "I was nervous. I don't know about everybody else, but I know I was."

Helping make those nerves worse was tenacious defense by the Shawnees, who limited the Buffaloes to 28 percent field-goal shooting and forced seven turnovers in the period.

"Floyd County is the best [Group A] team in the state," said Tracy Poff, Shawsville's coach. "Holding them to 60 points, with our lack of size and experience, shows we can play defense against anybody."

However, the Buffaloes' defense was up to the challenge and more than made up for the team's sluggish offense.

Shawsville did not get off a shot until its seventh trip down the court, nearly three minutes into the game. At the end of the period, the Shawnees were 2-for-7 on field-goal attempts with 14 turnovers. That translated into a 12-4 Floyd County lead.

"We had a lot of defensive pressure in the first quarter," said Monica Lucas, the Buffaloes' point guard. "We pressed, we played our man-to-man [defense]. We just stuck with our normal stuff, and it seemed to work pretty good."

Floyd County continued to struggle offensively until late in the second period. Clinging to a 20-10 lead, the Buffaloes called time out with 1 minute, 28 seconds remaining before halftime. After the timeout, they ran off six points to close the half.

First, Laura Harman scored on a layup off a pass from Nolley. Then, Nolley converted a layup. Nolley closed the mini-run by hitting two free throws with 11 seconds to go.

Then came halftime. But Floyd County wasn't in its locker room very long. The Buffaloes came out with about eight minutes to go and practiced shooting until the start of the third period.

The practice paid off after Shawsville's Kelley Ryan cut the lead to 26-12 on a short jumper and Floyd County called another timeout.

After that stoppage, the Buffaloes rolled off eight points - including four on driving layups by Lucas. That extended the advantage to 22 points.

"Coach [Alan Cantrell] kind of got on us a little bit," Lucas said. "He told us we knew what we had to do. And he told us to come out here and do it better."

The Shawnees never got closer than 18 points in the last 14 minutes. The lead ranged from 22 to 31 points in the final quarter.