Comets Avoid an Early Flameout

Having won what many were calling the best-played basketball game in the WNBA’s two seasons, Houston Coach Van Chancellor struggled to put his team’s 74-69 overtime win over Phoenix on Saturday in context.

“I’ve coached 35 years, starting with junior high boys and girls, through high school, college and now here,” he said.

“This was combat, folks. I was never involved in a game that was anything like this. What you saw in the stretch today was great players making great plays.

“It’s a good thing Game 3 [in Houston] is Tuesday. If it was [today] my players could make it, but I couldn’t.”

The Comets (27-3 during the regular season) drew even in the best-of-three championship series by outscoring the Mercury in overtime, 8-3, before a sellout crowd of 16,285 in Compaq Center.

Cynthia Cooper led the way for Houston with a game-high 27 points, including four in overtime. Sheryl Swoopes added 14 points, including the other four in overtime, and 13 rebounds.

Phoenix had a 62-50 lead with 7:24 to play and the Mercury’s point guard, Michele Timms, was expertly running time off the clock with each possession.

Houston’s season was ticking down. Or so it seemed.

Then, Houston’s two superstars, Cooper and Swoopes, began to play, as Chancellor would say, “like Cooper and Swoopes.”

Cooper scored seven points in a 13-0 run that gave the Comets a 63-62 advantage. Phoenix reclaimed the lead on a basket by Jennier Gillom, but Cooper scored a three-pointer with 1:25 left to make the score 66-64.

The Mercury’s Kristi Harrower (12 points) sent the game into overtime with a seven-foot jump shot with one minute left.

But Phoenix, after another brilliant but exhausting defensive job on Cooper and Swoopes, was wearing down. Forty minutes of transition defense and denying Cooper her driving lanes had taken its toll.

Houston, energized by the crowd, easily prevailed in the overtime.

With 11:43 left and Phoenix ahead, 50-47, Cooper was three for 10 with 12 points, and Swoopes was four for 12 with eight points.

“What you saw today is why Coop is the MVP,” said Timms, who scored 21 points and guarded Cooper most of the game.

“We thought we were doing a good job on her. All of a sudden, she’s got 25 [she finished with 27]. She was like a panther who pounced on us at just the right minute, and that was the ballgame.”

Notes

Professional women’s basketball is coming to Minnesota. Deposits for the required 5,000 season tickets were sold by Friday, four days before the Tuesday deadline to secure a WNBA expansion team for the 1999 season. “We made it well before the deadline and we didn’t just sneak past the 5,000 mark,” said Roger Griffith, Minnesota Timberwolves’ chief financial officer. Minnesota’s expansion team will be a member of the six-team Western Conference, which includes the Sparks, Houston, Phoenix, Sacramento, and Utah. . . .

The finals are being broadcast in 148 countries in 20 languages.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

WNBA Finals

HOUSTON VS. PHOENIX

(Series tied, 1-1)

* Game 1: Phoenix 54, Houston 51

* Game 2: Houston 74, Phoenix 69 (OT)

* Tuesday: at Houston, 5 p.m. (ESPN)