It’s Demolition Time for Errant StingRays

A roaring, foot-stomping crowd of 15,340--New England’s third sellout of the season--got what it wanted Thursday night in Harford Civic Center.

Total demolition of the Long Beach StingRays.

In a matchup of two ABL playoff-bound teams, the score, 97-63, doesn’t begin to illustrate how poorly Long Beach (24-17) performed.

StingRay coach Maura McHugh said it best.

“I’m in shock,” she said.

“I can’t figure this team out. We were outplayed in every conceivable category. It was by far our worst game yet, but I give New England (23-20) credit--they played at a very high level and had a lot to do with how we played.

“Offense or defense . . . we had nothing.”

This, two days after perhaps Long Beach’s best effort of the season, Tuesday’s Pyramid blowout of San Jose, 84-69.

How bad was it? This bad:

* In the third quarter, the StingRays committed turnovers on five consecutive trips down court and finished with 10 for the quarter, 26 for the game.

* Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil, who had scored 23 and 22 points the previous two games, didn’t score a point.

Plainly, this talented, yet inconsistent team is lucky it has already secured a playoff berth.

Venus Lacy said she was speechless, but talked anyway.

“I don’t know what to say,” she said. “Obviously, we weren’t ready to play. The best thing about the game is it’s over--we don’t even have to think about it anymore.”

The spread, 34 points, was the largest for New England and easily Long Beach’s worst beating.

The StingRays stumbled early, down 6-0 and then 15-6 with four minutes left in the first quarter. In their only decent play of the night, they scored the last nine points of the first quarter to trail, 17-15, at the end of the first period.

After that, free-fall.

The Blizzard had a 37-28 halftime lead, then made a 9-1 run to go ahead, 46-29. Long Beach didn’t score a field goal the first 3:53 of the third quarter--a Niesa Johnson drive--to make it, 46-31.

The crowd, watching the Blizzard’s final regular-season home game, was the second largest in ABL history. The team drew seven crowds of 10,000 or more and averaged 10,400 for 15 home games played in Hartford.

New England’s smallest home crowd, 6,424, was larger than the average of all other eight ABL teams.

Around the ABL

Katie Smith scored 25 points and Tonya Edwards 16 as the visiting Columbus Quest (34-8) routed the Atlanta Glory (15-27), 93-52, before 4,085 in the third-largest blowout in league history. . . . Natalie Williams scored 21 points to lead the Portland Power (26-16) to a 74-66 victory over the Colorado Xplosion (19-23) before 9,778. . . . Astou Ndiaye scored 22 points, including 14 of Seattle’s last 18 points, to lead the Reign (14-28) over the Rage (13-29), 77-67, at Philadelphia.