Expansion Team Has Surprise for Sparks

The Sparks solved their slow-start problem Tuesday night, but this time couldn’t finish.

They blew a big halftime lead, rallied late in the game for another comfortable lead, had to rally again to get a tie with 42 seconds left, then watched Lisa Leslie’s baseline hook shot bounce off the rim at the final horn, giving Orlando its first WNBA win, 88-86, before 7,588 at the Orlando Arena.

The Sparks (2-1) appeared headed for a third straight runaway win for most of the way, leading 50-39 at the half and 59-47 with 17 minutes to go.

That’s when Nykesha Sales, Connecticut’s all-time leading scorer, led a 12-0 Miracle surge to catch Los Angeles, 59-59. Then she did it again in the final minutes, just before Taj McWilliams punctuated the comeback with the last field goal of the game--on a drive through traffic with 21 seconds left.

A 6-foot swing player, Sales is making up for lost time. Her rookie year should have been last summer, but she sat out a year to recover from Achilles’ surgery and was assigned to the expansion Miracle (1-2).

Tuesday, she had 29 points, including five for eight on three-point attempts--each one coming at pivotal times for the Miracle.

She made one to ignite the 12-0 run, then scored on an 18-foot jump shot, McWilliams (23 points) added a three-point shot and Sheri Sam scored on a drive. Then Sales made the play of the game--a midcourt inbounds pass to Andrea Congreaves all alone underneath, to get the 59-59 tie, revving the crowd as the Sparks called time out.

The Sparks’ 6-6 Yugoslav center, Nina Bjedov, gave her team a 71-64 lead with 7:34 left with two free throws and a 15-foot jump shot. Leslie made it 74-66 with a baseline drive and a free throw at 7:05, but the Sparks couldn’t hold that lead either.

Sam and Sales made back-to-back three-point shots with four minutes to go and Shannon Johnson’s layup gave Orlando its first lead, 81-80, since the opening minutes.

Leslie, who scored 23 points and had nine rebounds in 27 minutes, gave the Sparks their last lead with a six-foot skyhook, 82-81, with 2:31 left.

Point guard Gordana Grubin, another Sparks’ player from Yugoslavia, made a three-point shot from the corner with 42 seconds left to tie it, 86-86, after Sales sank another three-point shot.

But McWilliams got the winner.

The launch of the last-gasp hook by Leslie, who had five fouls in the game, seemed like a dead heat with the horn.

“I don’t think it would’ve counted, I think it was a tick late,” Woolridge said.

Orlando Coach Carolyn Peck: “I have no idea. The crowd was so loud I couldn’t hear the horn.”

Woolridge was unhappy over a blown first-half lead of 42-25 and an early second-half lead of 54-39. And there were 20 turnovers, most of them against a Miracle press.

“We definitely need more work on attacking the press,” Leslie said.

Added Woolridge: “I knew we had to jump on ‘em early in the second half, and we didn’t do it. We were playing back on our heels, and we let Sales take it to us.”