ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 13, 1997 TAG: 9703130050
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM THE ROANOKE TIMES
The team that plays its style of basketball should win the Group A semifinal tonight.
Two basketball coaches had it easy after their teams won first-round games in the state tournament.
Glenvar's Art Lawrence and Floyd County's Alan Cantrell didn't have to hustle to find videotapes of their next foe or obtain a detailed scouting report. Glenvar (17-10) and Floyd County (24-3) already have met four times this season.
Now comes the hard part.
They have to play a fifth time in a Group A semifinal at 8:30 tonight at the Vines Center in Lynchburg.
This is the rubber meeting. In the first two games, it was run-and-shoot as Floyd County won. In the past two, it was a matter of taking some time off the clock as Glenvar evened the series.
Floyd County likes to throw the throttle wide open. Glenvar hopes it's a tempo game. The team that controls the tempo is likely to advance to Saturday's championship contest against the winner of tonight's opener between Surry County and Washington & Lee-Montross.
``I think there is some advantage to playing them in that we know what they've done in the past, what they like to do and what they can and can't do,'' Lawrence said of the Buffaloes.
Floyd County's coach knows what he's up against.
``They like to play tough defense, a half-court style game,'' Alan Cantrell said. ``They want to control tempo on offense and get the good shot on offense.
``We have to do a better job of creating some things with our defense. Glenvar is very sound and doesn't make a lot of mistakes. That's important this time of year.''
The Buffaloes averaged 78 points in their victories over Glenvar. In the district and regional tournaments, the Highlanders averaged 57 points, but held Floyd County to 54.5.
``I'm not taking anything away from them when I say they're a slow-down team,'' Cantrell said. ``They have the athletes and the bench to play an up-tempo game, and against J.I. Burton [in the first round in Group A] they played at a pretty fast pace.''
The game matches two of Timesland's - if not the state's - best Group A players in Travis Cantrell of Floyd County and Josh Williamson of Glenvar.
Cantrell scored 36 points in the Buffaloes' 84-72 victory over Haysi on Saturday.
``That was his best game because he was consistent in every quarter,'' Lawrence said. ``It seemed like he was fired up for that game. He was very confident and determined he'd carry his team, and he did.''
As for Williamson, Lawrence says he's gotten better along with the team. ``His ability to give the ball up when he gets double-teamed has improved. ... Now he realizes he has teammates who can shoot the ball.''
LENGTH: Medium: 58 linesby CNB