StingRays Go From Bad to Much Worse in Overtime Struggle

Yes, there were tears.

Yes, it hurt terribly.

The Long Beach StingRays, before their first sellout crowd, 4,203, came apart in the last minute of regulation and then swooned in overtime before the Portland Power Sunday, 88-82.

Any hopes Long Beach (23-16) had of winning the ABL West title were all but crushed, with the StingRays now having to win all five of their remaining games and hoping Portland loses one of its remaining three.

Had they won, the StingRays could have finished 3-2 and won it, since they’d have won the season series with Portland (25-16).

But it all evaporated in a maelstrom of missed Long Beach free throws, Portland’s finishing rally and a couple of questionable calls.

This was one Long Beach seemed to have in the satchel at several points in the second half, after Niesa Johnson’s crazy-looking layup with two seconds left in the first half gave the StingRays a 37-31 intermission lead:

* Two Yolanda Griffith (26 points, 14 rebounds) free throws and a Venus Lacy layup off a great feed by Andrea Nagy gave the StingRays a 43-35 lead midway through the third quarter.

* A three-point basket by Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil (23 points) gave Long Beach a 56-49 lead early in the fourth quarter.

* Long Beach led, 65-57, at 3:30 to go on two Nagy free throws.

* Even with 58 seconds left, Long Beach had a 73-66 lead.

Then Long Beach’s title hopes drifted away, like so much steam.

Lisa Harrison scored a putback for Portland, DeLisha Milton scored a layup and Natalie Williams (25 points, 14 rebounds) made a free throw with 31 seconds left.

Milton sank an 18-footer with 1.7 seconds to go in regulation for a 73-73 tie.

After Griffith scored first in overtime, Portland scored nine unanswered points.

Long Beach Coach Maura McHugh was near tears with anger afterward. And most of her rage was focused on six missed free throws in the last six minutes of regulation.

“We missed too many free throws . . . bottom line, we make those free throws, we win the game and we win by a good margin. The game never should have gone to overtime.”

So, 5-0?

Said Davis-Wrightsil: “Anything’s possible. But we sure made it tough on ourselves, didn’t we?”