StingRays’ Defense Foils Quest
Yolanda Griffith on Sunday added a whole bunch of people to the growing list who call her the best women’s basketball player in the world.
Certainly, most of the 4,005 who watched her lead the StingRays to a 65-62 upset victory over the Columbus Quest at the Pyramid must think so.
The opening game in the ABL finals was Griffith’s finest performance. Here’s what she did:
* Shortly before the game, her coach, Maura McHugh, told her she would be guarding Columbus’ 5-foot-9 Katie Smith, the Quest’s leading scorer. Smith, who had averaged 17.4 points in the regular season, could manage only 10 Sunday.
* At the other end, Griffith scored 16 points.
* She also had 18 rebounds, 15 at the defensive end.
* Griffth was six for eight from the floor, while Smith was only four for 15.
Long Beach will have the opportunity to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series tonight at the Pyramid against a team the StingRays didn’t come close to beating in four tries in the regular season.
The decision to put Griffith on Smith was made about 10 days ago, McHugh said, but she didn’t tell Griffith until moments before the tip-off.
“I just went up to her and said, ‘How do you feel about guarding Smith?’ McHugh said.
“She said: ‘Fine.’ The moment we knew we’d be playing Columbus, I decided to put Yo on Katie.”
Among those surprised that Long Beach would put a post player on Smith was Quest Coach Brian Agler.
“Yolanda put a lot of pressure on Katie, she did a good job,” Agler said. “It surprised me, sure. It also surprised me she could play 36, 37 minutes [it was 38] and play that hard on the defensive end and be so effective on offense too.”
Said Griffith: “It was hard at times, because I got picked a lot. But we communicated well on the court we had each other as well as that crowd pumping us up.”
Appropriately, in a pregame ceremony, Griffith was officially presented with her ABL defensive player-of-the-year award.
“Yolanda is a great player and she did a great job on a great player,” said Venus Lacy, who had nine rebounds.
Columbus, 36-8 in the regular season and 67-17 in the last two ABL seasons, saw Long Beach take an eight-point lead early in the fourth quarter after the StingRays had outscored the Quest, 18-13, in the third quarter.
Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil, who had failed to score in double figures in the four losses to Columbus, had 16 Sunday and made all six free throws. In fact, she began the fourth quarter by making four free throws and when Williams added a layup, Long Beach started the final period with a 6-0 run.
After Williams’ layup, the Quest called a timeout and the crowd was then fully involved.
The lead reached 56-48 with two Lacy free throws with 7:30 to play.
With 4:35 left, Smith and Lloyd combined for the play of the game. Lloyd fired a length-of-the-court pass to a streaking Smith, who layed it in without a dribble. That reduced the StingRay lead to 58-56.
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
Columbus vs. StingRays
Best of five
Long Beach leads series 1-0
* Sunday: Long Beach 65, Columbus 62
* Tonight: at Long Beach, 7
* Wednesday: at Columbus, 4
* Friday: at Columbus, 4*
* Sunday: at Columbus, 4*
*--if necessary