Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 5, 1993 TAG: 9312050154
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: M.J. DOUGHERTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Buffaloes trailed at halftime. The starters didn't get much of a chance to rest. And the game stayed close.
Still, the result was typical - a 68-62 victory over Buffalo Gap in the championship game of the Group A state tournament Saturday at the Salem Civic Center.
"We had to realize we were playing for the state championship," said Floyd County forward Leigh-Ann Pursifull, whose offense and rebounding helped keep the Buffaloes close early. "We spent a lot of time talking at the coach's house about how this was just another game."
But it wasn't. Buffalo Gap was the team that beat Floyd County the last time it reached the final - 1984. And it resembled Floyd County right down to the school colors of gold and black and the bison mascot.
"That went through my mind several times," said Floyd County coach Alan Cantrell. "They were playing a really tough pressure man-to-man [defense]. I thought they did really well in the man-to-man. I think we didn't do a good job executing [against the defense] and it took us out of our offense."
That defensive pressure limited Floyd County to 33 percent shooting in the first quarter, 38 percent for the first half and 41 percent for the game.
"That's part of playing good defense," said Buffalo Gap coach Dennis Dull. "Playing good defense frustrates good players. And I feel like we have good athletes who play good defense."
But the Bison could not keep up their defensive pressure the entire game. And Floyd slowly started to pull away in the second half, for after missing some layups early center Lynette Nolley figured out how to successfully penetrate the Buffalo Gap defense.
"In the first half, I was really frustrated with myself," said Nolley, who had game-highs with 24 points and 14 rebounds. "I thought I was pressing. I didn't expect them to come out and play us so hard [physically]. After halftime, I didn't want to end [the season] with a loss. This was it."
Nolley had eight points in the third period, outscoring the Bison by herself, 8-6. Adding a layup by Laura Harman, two free throws by Pursifull and a follow-up by Brennan O'Neill, Floyd County built a 50-43 lead by the end of the quarter.
"We got to run our plays," said Pursifull, who finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds. "We executed better than we did in the first half. We got our plays working so we could score."
The Buffaloes then opened the fourth quarter with a 9-2 run by pounding the ball inside. Nolley had a three-point play, and O'Neill, Pursifull and Laura Harman each added a basket. With 5 1/2 minutes to go, they held an almost typical 59-45 lead.
But Buffalo Gap would not go quietly. Over the next three minutes, its defense again frustrated Floyd County by forcing turnovers on five of six possessions.
And with a combination of free throws, layups and outside jumpers, Buffalo Gap cut the lead to four points twice in the closing minutes, the last time at 61-57 with 2 minutes, 40 seconds remaining.
But that defensive effort had its price. Bisons point guard Leslie Wolfe had six points and a steal in the surge. She also committed three fouls and fouled out with 2:22 to go.
"Losing Wolfe was key," said Dull. "She is the key that started the engine for us."
Twice, Wolfe fouled Melissa Cantrell, who handled the point-guard duties down the stretch for Floyd County. After Wolfe fouled out, her replacement, Heather Sheets, also fouled Cantrell.
All Cantrell did in return was make five of six free throws to keep the Buffaloes in front.
"I was just the one who had the ball when they needed to foul somebody," said Cantrell, who scored seven of her 11 points on free throws. "We work a lot on free throws in practice. I knew if I made them, we had the game. And I just put them through."
Cantrell's last two free throws gave Floyd County a 68-59 lead with 1:41 to go.
Over the last 1 1/2 minutes, Buffalo Gap missed six shots, including four on one possession. It finally scored again when Sarah McNett hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
McNett paced the Bison with 19 points. \
see microfilm for box score
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.