Sparks Find a New Way to Lose
The Sparks, apparently tired of blowing big leads and games, now seem to have embarked upon a campaign to blow little leads . . . and games.
Los Angeles, facing a team it beat by 20 points June 27, watched several narrow leads evaporate against a team whose best player and the WNBA’s leading scorer, Ruthie Bolton-Holifield, had been put on the three-game injured list hours before tipoff.
Sacramento (5-5) need a replacement heroine and into the game stepped Latasha Byears, who led her team to a 78-73 victory before an announced crowd of 8,420.
And for the Sparks (4-7), here’s the worst part: They arrive in Los Angeles this morning at 11:30 and have to face the red-hot Houston Comets tonight at the Forum.
Is this a team tumbling to the WNBA’s cellar? Is there any confidence? What to do now?
“I wish I knew,” Coach Linda Sharp said. “I’m getting sick of this, blowing leads that way. . . . We should be doubling the [margin] on some of these teams, not losing leads.”
Byears, a 5-foot-11, 205-pound rookie out of DePaul, was an adequate replacement for Bolton-Holifield, sidelined because of a knee strain.
She played 31 minutes, scored 21 points and had 10 rebounds and four assists--not a bad night for someone making her first pro start and who had been averaging 3.4 points a game.
“I’ve got a killer instinct,” she said. “Every coach I’ve ever played for has told me that. Basketball is just hard work and concentration, once you know what you’re doing.”
Said Sharp: “It was just pure effort on her part, and we weren’t getting a body on her, either. She got seven offensive rebounds . . . “
Byears had two great surges in the game, first early in the second half when her three-point play, a driving layup, two free throws, a put-back and an eight-foot baseline jumper helped her team to a 46-46 tie with 12:15 to play.
By this point, the Sparks’ two 6-5 inside players, Lisa Leslie and Heidi Burge, both had four fouls and Byears was working them aggressively in the key, trying to force fouls.
Byears clinched the game with 26 seconds to play when she drove through the Sparks’ defense for a layup, making it 76-71.
Los Angeles’ Penny Toler made it 76-73 with two free throws, but she traveled with five seconds left while trying to set up a game-tying three-point shot. On the inbounds pass, guess who beat everyone downcourt for an easy layup?
Byears.
Bridgette Gordon, with 22 points, also contributed inside against Los Angeles’ steadily softening defense.
Leslie had 17 points to lead the Sparks, but had only five rebounds and the Monarchs outrebounded the Sparks, 34-21.
Sharp’s team played its sharpest basketball in several games late in the first half, spurred in part by Zheng Haixia, who came off the bench to score nine points when Los Angeles moved from a 22-19 deficit to a 37-30 lead.
The Spark bench came alive at the 3:30 mark when Katrina Colleton made a three-pointer to give Los Angeles a 68-66 lead.
But Gordon tied it with two free throws and Pam McGee--who fiercely battled fellow USC alum Leslie all night inside--lost Leslie on a layup down the key.
Women’s Basketball Notes
Mikiko Hagiwara, Sacramento’s Japanese Olympic team veteran, had company from home Monday. Her entire pro team from Japan, Japan Energy of Tokyo, arrived Sunday to see her play Monday night. Good timing: Hagiwara had her first WNBA start, filling in for Ruthie Bolton-Holifield.
Sophia Witherspoon scored 15 of her 16 points in the first half and the New York Liberty, which opened the game with a 26-4 run, routed the Cleveland Rockers, 76-59, at New York. The Liberty (10-2) won its third consecutive game and completed a home-and-home sweep of the Rockers (3-8). . . . The Richmond Rage of the American Basketball League is being moved to Philadelphia, according to the league’s chief executive officer. Despite advancing to the league’s first championship series behind point guard Dawn Staley, the Rage drew poorly and lost between $500,000 and $600,000 last season.