ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 14, 1997 TAG: 9703140069
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: LYNCHBURG
SOURCE: RAY COX THE ROANOKE TIMES
Travis Cantrell's 36 points send Floyd County into the Group A final.
No strangers played in the second game of Thursday night's Group A tournament semifinal at the Vines Center.
Floyd County High and its Three Rivers District rival from Glenvar met for the fifth time this season. In the most important of the season's clashes, the Buffaloes held the Highlanders under control with fullcourt defense and received a pile of offense out of Travis Cantrell on the way to a 65-58 victory.
The Buffaloes play Surry County, which decked Washington & Lee-Montross 93-58, at 1 p.m. Saturday for the state championship. Neither Floyd County nor Surry County has previously won the state boys' basketball title.
Typical of the series between the Buffaloes and Highlanders, the game was a tough, physical affair.
The teams were even in most regards except one. Floyd County had Travis Cantrell and the Highlanders did not.
Cantrell, the son of Buffaloes coach Alan Cantrell, shook off a sore ankle to score 36 points, 19 coming in the first half. Cantrell, who set a state tournament record for the classification when he made 13 free throws in a quarterfinal victory over Haysi, did it again. This time, he made 13 foul shots in as many attempts as the Buffaloes went 21-for-29 from the stripe.
Cantrell made 10 of 21 shots from the floor.
"I guess I'm taking more shots than I usually do,'' he said of his field-goal shooting. "But they were trying to slough off on Derek Saunders and Brian Swortzel down low.''
The foul-line marksmanship came in handy because the Buffaloes generally have a difficult time shooting from the floor. Floyd County went 9-for-31 in the first half (29 percent) on the way to shooting 35.7 percent for the game. Glenvar canned 45.7 percent of its shots.
"I told the team I might have taken them out of the Region C game against Glenvar because I tried to slow it down and force the ball inside,'' Alan Cantrell said. "So tonight we played fast. We played Floyd County basketball.''
Glenvar (17-11) got 20 points from Josh Williamson, 13 from sophomore guard Bryan Fasnacht, and 12 from Chris Evans.
"When you get behind, it forces you to play faster to play catchup,'' Glenvar coach Art Lawrence said. "We made a couple of good runs at them, but they always came back and made big plays.''
Cantrell was at his most productive in the last few minutes of both the first and second quarters. He triggered an 8-3 run in the last 2:40 of the first with a 3-pointer followed less than a minute later with another swish from closer range. His two foul shots with four seconds left in the quarter left Floyd County up 16-10.
Glenvar battled back during the second quarter and twice tied the score with under two minutes to go to the break. Cantrell then came through again, this time from the free-throw line. His two with a minute left staked his team to a 28-26 lead. A short while later he put in two more free throws following a technical foul of the Glenvar bench with 22 seconds left. NOTE: please see microfilm for scores.
LENGTH: Medium: 67 linesby CNB