Mercury Puts the Comets on the Ropes

The Phoenix Mercury, a team that began August with a five-game losing streak, is now one game away from ending it with a WNBA championship.

The Mercury, opening the best-of-three finals, upended the Houston Comets, 54-51, Thursday on a shot by Jennifer Gillom with 8.9 seconds left before 13,634 at America West Arena.

Then, for Phoenix, the hard part: Watching Houston’s Sheryl Swoopes miss a 16-foot rim rattler with 2.6 seconds left, then seeing a 40-foot hook shot by Cynthia Cooper hit the rim and bounce away with 1.5 seconds left.

Game 2 is Saturday at Houston’s Compaq Center.

Houston’s season-long shooting supremacy vanished Thursday. League most valuable player Cynthia Cooper had 29 points but Swoopes was three for 14, Kim Perrot one for 12 and Tina Thompson two for eight.

Houston shot 32%, Phoenix 35%.

But at the finish, the shot that mattered most was a five-foot jumper by Gillom, who split a seam between two former Trojans, 6 foot 3 Tina Thompson and 6-5 Monica Lamb, and sank the winner.

It came after Phoenix inbounded the ball with 33 seconds left and the score, 51-51. Guard Michele Timms first ran down the shot clock, then, from the corner, found Gillom underneath.

“I was a decoy on the play, but when I saw I had Tina one-on-one, I wanted the ball and Michele got it to me,” said Gillom, who made only five of 20 shots.

Gillom also had just contributed a major defensive play, blocking a short Cooper baseline jump shot at 1:30 and the game tied at 51.

Houston, following Gillom’s shot and a timeout, had it at midcourt.

But Swoopes’ pass to Cooper was off the mark. It bounced free, and Thompson ran it down and threw frantically to Swoopes. Her shot rimmed out.

Phoenix’s Michelle Griffiths was fouled, and made one of two free throws for the three-point lead.

Cooper, 11 for 24, then sent up a wild hook that almost went in.

Houston was wobbled a bit by the noisy Phoenix crowd.

“The crowd was a factor, but we got a lot of good looks. Our shots didn’t go down,” said Comet Coach Van Chancellor, whose team shot 44% during the regular season.

Notes

Houston Comet guard Cynthia Cooper was a unanimous selection to the All-WNBA, three days after being named most valuable player. Cleveland’s Suzie McConnell Serio joined Cooper at guard. The frontcourt features Houston teammates Tina Thompson and Sheryl Swoopes at forward and Jennifer Gillom of Phoenix at center. The second team consisted of Cindy Brown of Detroit and Eva Nemcova of Cleveland at forward, Lisa Leslie of Los Angeles at center and Andrea Stinson of Charlotte and Teresa Weatherspoon of New York at guard. . . . Venus Lacy has signed to play for the Nashville Noise of the American Basketball League after being traded from the now-defunct Long Beach StingRays in April.