StingRays in Tough Spot Today

They’ll play one basketball game today for the ABL championship in a building where it appears the Columbus Quest really is unbeatable.

Unbeatable, at least, the last five months.

Last Oct. 17, in its season opener, Columbus lost to the Philadelphia Rage, 87-86.

Since then, the Quest has won its last 25 games in Battelle Hall, an unremarkable two-tiered arena with 6,313 yellow folding seats, located inside the Columbus Convention Center.

In two seasons, Columbus is 44-2 in Battelle.

And after Friday night, when the Quest pulled away in the third quarter and won, 68-53, to even the championship series at two games each, it was hard to find anyone who liked the Long Beach StingRays’ chances in the fifth and final game.

The players and their coach, Maura McHugh, were saying all the right things after a Saturday practice, about what they had to do and what they needed to do.

But Columbus’ feisty, dynamic point guard, Shannon Johnson, was talking about what her team will do.

Johnson is the remarkable little athlete whose leadership created the third-quarter surge Friday that created a fifth game.

She’s tough, and she’s strong. How many point guards can bench press their weight? This one does--135 pounds.

Throughout this series, in her matchup with Long Beach point guard Andrea Nagy, Johnson’s tenacious defense has been right on the edge of combat basketball. Her hand-checks are often karate chops, her screens body blocks.

Frustrated beyond endurance, Nagy was whistled for a midcourt elbow Friday and given a deliberate foul call.

“She’s tough and she’s mean,” McHugh said Friday, in a respectful way.

In the first half Friday, the StingRays seemed on the brink of a title, even though they trailed, 24-23, at halftime. They seemed to have more intensity and defensive toughness than Columbus.

Then Johnson was suddenly everywhere, grabbing turnovers, leading the break, dropping in midrange jump shots and keeping a Battelle crowd of 5,871 on its feet, screaming.

ABL Notes

The Quest and StingRays are playing tonight for an 18-inch bronze statue of a woman going up for a layup, and about $2,500 for each winning player, exact sum to be determined. . . . The series MVP gets $10,000. . . . Ordinarily, because the Quest had the better record, this series’ first two games would have been played at Columbus, the last three in Long Beach. But Battelle Hall was booked for a photography convention. Ohio State’s 14,000-seat St. John Arena was available, but Quest players voted to play the first two at Long Beach. . . . Long Beach’s excellent free-throw marksmanship in the finals continues. Venus Lacy is 34 for 37 and the StingRays are 102 for 123, almost 83%. But three-point shooting has been a major failing--22.8% in the four games.

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ABL FINALS

Columbus vs. StingRays

Best of five

Series tied, 2-2

* Game 1: Long Beach 65, Columbus 62

* Game 2: Long Beach 71, Columbus 61

* Game 3: Columbus 70, Long Beach 61

* Game 4: Columbus 68, Long Beach 53

* Today: at Columbus, 4 p.m.