Comets Ready for the Sparks

The Houston Comets hadn’t officially finished off the Sacramento Monarchs in the first round before their eager fans were looking to the next round.

Sheryl Swoopes scored a career playoff-high 27 points as the three-time WNBA champion Comets advanced to the Western Conference finals with a 75-70 victory over the Monarchs on Monday night before 11,664 at Houston.

Chants of “Beat L.A.! Beat L.A.!” filled the Compaq Center during the final seconds as the Comets swept the best-of-three series.

“They beat us here the last game, so our fans are already chanting to beat L.A.,” Swoopes said. “Our fans are going to feed off that. It’s going to be good for us.”

The Sparks beat the Comets in all three regular-season games, but Sacramento Coach Sonny Allen is sticking by his prediction: The Comets will win their fourth WNBA title in a row.

“I said it before the season and I’m sticking to it,” Allen said. “Yeah, the Sparks beat the Comets in the regular season, but they haven’t played them for the championship yet.”

Tina Thompson scored seven of her 21 points in the final 2:37 to clinch it.

Ruthie Bolton-Holifield led the Monarchs with 23 points and Yolanda Griffith scored 18 points and had 10 rebounds.

Swoopes led a 17-2 charge in the first half that gave the Comets an eight-point lead at 31-23, but Sacramento closed the gap to 38-37 at halftime.

Sacramento took a 46-40 lead early in the second half, but the Comets pulled ahead for good, 53-52, on a full-court pass from Swoopes to Cynthia Cooper for a layup with 12 minutes to play.

“The Houston Comets were the difference in the game,” Allen said. “We played good but to beat the best, there is not much margin for error.”

New York 78, Washington 57--The Liberty advanced to the Eastern Conference finals by completing a sweep of the Mystics in Game 2 of the best-of-three first-round series at Madison Square Garden.

Tari Phillips, selected the league’s most improved player earlier in the day, had 15 points and 10 rebounds for New York, which shot 52.5% from the floor, including six for 12 on three-point attempts. The Mystics were outscored, 40-28, in the paint and outrebounded, 31-19.

“It was a very befitting day for us to actually clinch this part of the series,” said Phillips, who sang the anthem to the roar of the crowd of 15,309. “[My teammates] were there when I received the award, and everybody was kind of fired up.”

Chamique Holdsclaw and Markita Aldridge led Washington with 12 points each, but Nikki McCray, who had a 15.5-point regular-season average, was scoreless.