It’s Over and Out for the Sparks
She played on back-to-back national championship teams at USC and won a gold medal at the Olympics, but Sunday night at America West Arena, Cheryl Miller may have registered her greatest day in basketball.
When she was named USC coach in 1994 with no head coaching experience, there were howls of outrage from many of her colleagues.
But she looked like a first-class coach in energizing the unlikely Phoenix Mercury to a 73-68 overtime victory over the L.A. Sparks and to the WNBA’s Western Conference championship.
She beseeched, cajoled and even begged her team to beat the Sparks, and it responded before a capacity crowd of 17,747.
The outcome created these one-game semifinal matchups Thursday:
--New York (17-11) at Phoenix (16-12).
--Charlotte (15-13) at Houston (18-10).
Jennifer Gillom, a 33-year-old veteran of Mississippi and the European pro leagues, shot Los Angeles to pieces with her fadeaway, one-legged jump shot, collecting 29 points and eight rebounds.
For the Sparks, their dramatic late-season charge to the playoffs, which included four consecutive victories and six out of seven, came to a chaotic finish.
Miller, minutes after the final horn, leaped up on the scorer’s table with a microphone and spoke to the crowd about a “liftoff to a championship.”
Minutes later, however, Miller fainted briefly while walking off the court, apparently from dehydration. She was hooked up to an IV in the locker room, then met with the media.
“I just told our players to bring up the intensity level,” she said. “They did, and that got us into the overtime and then the win.”
Spark interim Coach Julie Rousseau, still the coach at Washington High, was left to ponder her future after leading the team to a 10-7 record since taking over when Linda Sharp was fired July 15.
Tamecka Dixon led the Sparks with 22 points.
Penny Toler twice gave Los Angeles the lead late in regulation, the last time at 64-62 with 40 seconds to go.
But the Mercury’s Umeki Webb stole the ball from Dixon at half-court and Michele Timms found Marlies Askamp all alone underneath to tie the score and force overtime.
Bridget Pettis started overtime with a three-point basket, Timms scored on a break and Gillom hit a basket to make it 71-64, Phoenix. And that was it, the Sparks coming no closer than three points down the stretch.
Other WNBA Games
Kym Hampton had a season-high 21 points and Rebecca Lobo added 20, including four points apiece in overtime, as the New York Liberty (17-11) ended the Cleveland Rockers’ playoff hopes with a 79-72 victory before 18,051 at Madison Square Garden. . . . Andrea Stinson had 17 points and 19 rebounds to lead the Charlotte Sting (15-13) into the playoffs with a 70-52 victory over the Utah Starzz (7-21) before 8,028 at Charlotte. . . . Bridgette Gordon and Pam McGee scored 16 points apiece to lead the Sacramento Monarchs (10-18) to an 68-58 upset of the Comets (18-10) before 14,252 at Houston.
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WNBA Playoff Schedule
SEMIFINALS
Thursday
Charlotte at Houston, 4:30 p.m.
New York at Phoenix, 6:30 p.m.
CHAMPIONSHIP
Saturday
Charlotte-Houston winner vs. New York-Phoenix winner, 12:30 p.m.