StingRays Lose Their Way in San Jose, 77-71

The StingRays remain in first place today, but it’s due more to events in Columbus, Ohio, than anything Long Beach achieved in San Jose on Wednesday night.

The StingRays had a 10-point first quarter at the San Jose State Event Center and never emerged from behind the eight-ball in dropping a 77-71 verdict to the Lasers.

Long Beach (19-13) won its first four games with San Jose (17-16), but the Lasers are patsies no more. San Jose has won the last two.

Before 3,210, Long Beach might have slipped behind Portland in the Western Conference race, but Columbus trounced the Power (19-14), 89-60.

Not even a brilliant game by Yolanda Griffith--who had 29 points and 18 rebounds--could save Long Beach on Wednesday, although the StingRays did close to within 66-63 with 3:26 to play when Niesa Johnson made a three-point basket.

But there the game returned to San Jose.

Clarisse Machanguana, a 6-foot-5 rookie center who played at Old Dominion University and is from Mozambique, made two free throws, then intercepted a Long Beach pass at midcourt, dribbled to the hoop and fed Jennifer Azzi for a 70-63 lead.

When Azzi added a 16-foot jump shot and Charlotte Smith scored on a fast-break layup with 45 seconds to play, the crowd was on its feet cheering and Long Beach was down, 74-65.

Long Beach Coach Maura McHugh was furious and lectured her team in the locker room for 10 minutes after the game.

Subjects: Blown fast breaks, lousy passes to post players and shot-clock management.

“We got what we deserved,” she said.

“We had a bad practice yesterday, then we came up here and took this game lightly. We weren’t tired. We just weren’t mentally ready to play.”

Some early season warts appeared again in the StingRay game: horrible passes into the post, to name one.

“Our passes into the post were really bad,” McHugh said.

“So was our shot-clock management. We were playing like we weren’t even aware of the clock on top of the backboard.”

Then there was the ugly demonstration of layup shooting to start the second half.

Trailing, 37-30, at the break, Long Beach blew layups on three-on-two and two-on-one fast breaks on successive plays.

San Jose rookie guard Kedra Holland-Corn scored twice and had a brilliant third-quarter floor game, pushing San Jose to a 56-43 lead.

Griffith had her most productive output before fouling out with seven seconds left. Ten of her rebounds came in the first half. She also had five steals.

Every San Jose starter scored in double figures, Machanguana leading with 15. Long Beach out-rebounded the Lasers, 48-28, but Long Beach shot only 37% to San Jose’s 55%.

In other ABL games, Katie Smith scored 23 points to lead the Quest’s win over Portland before 3,984 in Columbus, Ohio. It was the Quest’s sixth victory in a row.

And Edna Campbell scored 25 points to lead the Xplosion to its fourth consecutive victory, an 84-65 thumping of Seattle before 3,374 in Denver.

ABL Notes

San Jose is 2-3 since Long Beach broke its nine-game winning streak on Dec. 28. . . . The StingRays have a one-week All-Star break, resuming play Jan. 22 at Portland, then meeting Colorado on Jan. 27 at the Pyramid. . . . Yolando Griffith continues her drive to an odd double: leading the league in rebounding and steals. She has a slim lead over Portland’s Natalie Williams in rebounds and has 14 more steals than anyone else.