Bigger Is Better for West All-Stars

Could the West have done it like Sylvia Crawley won the halftime dunk contest--blindfolded?

It seemed like it, beginning four minutes into the game when the ABL’s West all-stars ran up a 9-2 lead and never looked back, routing the East, 102-73, Sunday in the ABL’s second All-Star game.

The crowd was 4,189 in the 5,500-seat field house at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex.

The West had a huge advantage in rebounding strength, and it set the tone early. The West outrebounded the East, 49-35, with Natalie Williams getting a game-high 12.

What did it mean, relative to the strengths of both conferences?

Not much, West Coach Maura McHugh of the Long Beach StingRays said.

“They came in missing two injured post players [Atlanta’s Tracy Henderson and Katrina McClain], and we took advantage of that,” McHugh said.

“But I will say that for having just one one-hour practice, I thought this team played remarkably well. We came out loose, with good rhythm and ball movement. And for an all-star game, I thought we played very good defense.”

Shalonda Enis (15 points, five rebounds) of Seattle, the only rookie to start, won the $10,000 most valuable player check.

And Crawley, of the Colorado Xplosion, who donned a blindfold at midcourt for her final effort in the dunk competition, brought down the house.

Many suspected she could see through the black blindfold, but she insisted she couldn’t.

“I close my eyes when I dunk anyway,” said Crawley, who earned $5,000.

Dawn Staley of the Philadelphia Rage also won $5,000 for winning the three-point shootout over Katie Smith, 47 points to 44.

Long Beach’s Yolanda Griffith, after scoring 13 points and grabbing six rebounds, called the West’s winning margin a surprise.

“Even with their big players not here, I still expected a close game,” she said. “Our inside play was too much for them, but our outside people played well too.”

Said Colorado’s Debbie Black: “You can’t say this means the Western Conference is that much better than the East. After all, Columbus (25-7) is dominating the league.”

McHugh started Griffith, Williams, Jennifer Azzi (San Jose), Enis and Crystal Robinson (Colorado). East Coach Brian Agler’s starters--Staley, Carolyn Jones (New England), Teresa Edwards (Atlanta), Valerie Still and Katie Smith (both from Columbus)--were no match.

From 9-2, the West went to 20-5, to 22-13 after one quarter and to 54-27 at halftime.

They didn’t issue a check for the play of the game, but the easy winner would have been Columbus’ 5-foot-6 Shannon Johnson. Defending on a break in the second quarter, she leaped high to cleanly block a layup by Colorado’s 6-3 Tari Phillips, then crashed to the floor.

But the crowd’s favorite was Crawley’s “blind” dunk. The cheers lasted a full minute. After all, there wasn’t much of a game going on.

East assistant coach K.C. Jones summed it up best: “Halftime was better than the game.”

ABL Notes

Long Beach StingRay-Portland Power trade talks ended Sunday with no deal made. Portland, with three guards injured, inquired about making a deal for the StingRays’ Dana Wilkerson. No deal, Long Beach said. . . . It was a two-women vs. two-men coaching matchup, with Marla McHugh and Portland’s Lin Dunn besting Brian Agler and New England’s K.C. Jones. . . . The East’s Shannon Johnson left her Columbus jersey at home. She played in her warmup jacket and failed to score in 15 minutes.