West Win Has Very Familiar Ring to It

The sixth WNBA All-Star game had something for everyone: off-the charts scoring, a dunk and even a little horseplay.

The only thing missing Saturday was a victory for the East.

Behind veteran Sheryl Swoopes, the West ran its record to 6-0, beating the East, 122-99, in the highest-scoring All-Star game in WNBA history.

“I told our team I wanted to get 100,” East Coach Mike Thibault said. “I didn’t mean the other team.”

Swoopes had 15 points, most of them in the first half to get the West out to a solid start. It was the West’s largest margin of victory, and East’s highest point total.

With 11 Olympians in the game, the high score was almost a given. But it was the impromptu slam-dunk contest in the closing seconds that brought the sellout crowd of 9,168 at the Mohegan Sun Arena to its feet.

Detroit’s Deanna Nolan, a 6-foot guard, made a couple runs at a dunk, soaring to the basket from a wide-open lane and narrowly missing both shots.

It took 6-5 Lisa Leslie, the first woman to dunk in the league, to finally nail it down. The Spark center’s one-handed slam with 17 seconds left wound up being the final points.

“You’ve got a lot of points on the board. You’ve got rebounds, you’ve got a dunk. What more do you want?,” West Coach Anne Donovan said.

Swoopes was the game’s most valuable player.

Minnesota’s Katie Smith had 16 points, making four of six three-point shots, and the Sparks’ Chamique Holdsclaw had 14 for the West. Sacramento’s Yolanda Griffith had a team-high 14 rebounds.

Nolan led the East with 20 points. Indiana’s Tamika Catchings and New York’s Becky Hammon finished with 18 points each.

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Point explosion

Total points scored in WNBA All-Star games:

*--* Year Score, Site Total 1999 West 79, East 61 at New York 140 2000 West 73, East 61 at Phoenix 134 2001 West 80, East 72 at Orlando, Fla. 152 2002 West 81, East 76 at Washington 157 2003 West 84, East 75 at New York 159 2005 West 122, East 99 at Uncasville, Conn. 221

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No game in 2004 because of Olympics.