‘Crowd’ of Only 646 Sees StingRays Top Xplosion

Attendance continues to fall at StingRay games, leaving some to wonder how much longer the American Basketball League will keep the team in Long Beach.

A season-low crowd of 646 showed up Sunday afternoon at the 4,200-seat Pyramid to watch the StingRays beat Colorado, 76-75. This, for a 4 p.m. Sunday game, a time slot when the team had announced three crowds of more than 3,000 earlier this season.

It was the StingRays’ second consecutive home game with fewer than 1,000 fans. The club claims an average attendance of 1,962.

Last season, the Richmond Rage averaged 3,139 per home game, sixth-best in an eight-team league, and ABL chief Gary Cavalli moved the franchise to Philadelphia in the off-season.

Meanwhile, the StingRays kept their small crowd entertained to the last shot Sunday.

Trailing by nine points with 5:25 to go and by five with 1:25 left, Long Beach survived a missed shot at the final horn.

The second-place StingRays (13-10) needed Sunday’s victory to keep pace with conference leader Portland, but as Venus Lacy said afterward, the deck was stacked.

“We have some players sick, including me, and we had players today thinking of making flights home for Christmas instead of beating this team,” said Lacy, who put Long Beach ahead in the final minute.

“I’ve got a bad cold, Beverly [Williams] is catching what I have and Yolanda [Griffith] is just getting over the flu.”

The 6-foot-4 Lacy, in her fifth consecutive strong game (10 points, five rebounds) in the low post, was a major figure in the fourth quarter:

* With 5:25 to go and Colorado leading, 67-58, she scored underneath.

* With 50 seconds left, after Debbie Black had made two free throws to give the Xplosion a 73-71 lead, Lacy put back an Andrea Nagy missed layup, was fouled and made the free throw for the first Long Beach lead, 74-73, since the third quarter.

Colorado got a 75-74 lead on a Tari Phillips drive with 35 seconds left, but Nagy tied the score at 75-75 on a free throw with 21 seconds remaining.

Nine seconds later, Nagy made one of two free throws for the final score.

Colorado, after a time out and with 2.1 seconds on the clock, couldn’t muster a decent shot. The last one was a short, hurried hook by Dana Wynne that didn’t come close.

It wasn’t pretty--Long Beach had 21 turnovers, Colorado 24--but StingRay Coach Maura McHugh happily said she’d take it.

“I’ve never seen an ugly win,” she said. “It was lovely.”

Colorado (11-14) seemed to be pulling away for a decisive victory midway through the final quarter, after Crystal Robinson made three consecutive three-point shots to give the Xplosion a 67-58 lead.

But Niesa Johnson scored a 15-footer with two seconds left on the shot clock to narrow the gap to 69-66 with 2:28 to go, then Griffith stole the ball and went all the way for a layup to bring the StingRays within one.

Griffith scored a game-high 24 points on 11-for-12 shooting and had a game-high 14 rebounds.

Long Beach’s next game is at Portland on Dec. 27, followed by a four-game homestand beginning Dec. 28.