It’s Showtime for the StingRays

The Long Beach StingRays didn’t get the sellout they wanted in their American Basketball League debut at the Pyramid on Friday night, but they can be sure of this:

Sellouts won’t be far behind if Maura McHugh’s sizzling team keeps playing the way it did in a 98-91 victory over the San Jose Lasers before 3,108.

Yolanda Griffith, for one, will bring them in. And so will Clarisse Wrightsil-Davis and Beverly Williams.

Early reports on Griffith held up--the 6-foot-4 post player is one the best players in the women’s game.

The Lasers, two nights earlier, looked like a best-team-in-the-league candidate in routing Seattle, but every Long Beach player had a major role in the team’s smashing inaugural game.

There were flourishes everywhere, save for the final minutes. San Jose achieved score respectability in a sloppy finish when the lead was pared to four points in the final 20 seconds.

Before that, the StingRays had leads of 50-29, 52-36 at halftime, 60-42, 66-47 and 68-51.

Said Griffith: “We have a good team right now, and once we put our whole game together, we’ll have a dominating team. That’s when we can play hard from beginning to end, and break other teams’ presses better than we did tonight.”

Griffith was brilliant early on offense and throughout the game defensively. The quick center disrupted San Jose time and again with tipped passes, blocks and steals, triggering Long Beach breaks led by Hungarian guard Andrea Nagy and a powerful, driving game by Williams.

Long Beach struck early, to the delight of the StingRays’ late-arriving fans, who filled all but the upper corner sections of the 4,200-seat Pyramid.

The last tie was 8-8, and Williams, Davis-Wrightsil and Nagy quickly ran up a 25-13 lead.

Griffith had a game-high 24 points, Davis-Wrightsil 15 and Williams 13.

San Jose (1-1) went to full-court pressure in the third quarter and saw one of its runs expire on a great rebound by the 5-9 Williams. San Jose’s Jennifer Azzi was driving hard for a layup, a shot that would have cut Long Beach’s lead to 66-53.

But she missed the layup and there was Williams, soaring above 6-5 Clarisse Machanguana for a rebound. At the other end, Long Beach’s Cass Bauer converted two free throws to make it 68-51.

Venus Lacy, the 6-4 Olympian, was a force at both ends for the StingRays, even though she didn’t come into the game until late in the first quarter. She had been hampered by a tender knee, and McHugh started the 6-4 Bauer in her place.

Lacy said her team found its proper chemistry in the last week of training camp.

“See? I told you we’d be good, once we got our chemistry working,” she said.

The StingRays play the Colorado Xplosion tonight in Denver and return to the Pyramid on Tuesday night to play Colorado.

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In other games:

Philadelphia 87, Columbus 86--Dawn Staley made a 10-foot turnaround jumper with 2.2 seconds left to give the Rage a victory over the Quest before 3,850 at Columbus.

Staley and La’Keshia Frett led the Rage with 15 points each.

Tonya Edwards scored 22 and Shannon Johnson and Katie Smith 20 apiece for Columbus.

Columbus won its first 11 games last year in the ABL’s first season and defeated the Rage, which then was located in Richmond, in five games for the league title.

Atlanta 84, New England 78--Tracy Henderson had 18 points and seven rebounds and Stacy Lovelace added 15 points to lead the Glory over the Blizzard before 5,113 at Atlanta.

Atlanta player-coach Teresa Edwards, who played 40 minutes, scored 14 of her 16 points in the second half and also had 10 assists.

Carolyn Jones led New England with 30 points, Shanda Berry had 16 points and nine rebounds and Jennifer Rizzotti added 14 points.