Comets Stop Mercury from Rising

By Jennifer M. Korenek: SPM TX Writer
Posted Wednesday, July 23, 2008

HOUSTON, Texas - An announced crowd of 6,134 devoted fans stomped their feet in between held breaths as the Houston Comets (12-12) snuffed out the Phoenix Mercury’s (11-13) light during the last three minutes of their exciting 94-92 victory on Tuesday evening .

Phoenix forward Diana Taurasi set the tone for this “must win” game as she put up 12 of her team’s 25 points in the first quarter. During the first half, it was all Houston could do to keep up with Mercury, with the lead changing 12 times and the teams drawing even on five occasions. During the last three minutes of the half Phoenix went on a 12-point run, with the Comets only able to answer with a three-point shot as the buzzer went off, leaving the score at 52-43 in favor of the Mercury.

Phoenix held on to the lead during the third quarter, wavering only once as the Comets caught up just enough to tie the score at 67 with two minutes left in the quarter. But Phoenix stepped up and answered Houston’s challenge with another run of five unanswered points, increasing their lead to 72-69 at the start of the fourth.

It was in the fourth quarter that both teams realized what was at stake. The Comets’ win tonight is the first over Phoenix in seven games dating back to July 30, 1996. With two games remaining before the Olympic break, Houston is a game behind fourth-place Sacramento in the WNBA Western Conference.

The entire fourth quarter was a back- to-back, basket-for-basket nailbiter between the western rivals. With 1:42 left on the game clock the Comets were in the lead by only three points, at 91-88. But it didn’t take long for the Mercury to step up and bring the score to a pin-dropping one point difference of 91-90. With a foul on the Comets Tina Thompson, who only made one of her free throw shots, the lead was extended to a one basket game with only 15 seconds to go, and Phoenix had the ball.

Sancho Lyttle stole the Mercury inbound pass and gave it to Shannon Johnson, who was fouled and made two free throws with 11 seconds remaining. Taurasi put back in a layup with three seconds left to cut the lead to two, but Houston was able to get the inbounds pass and hold on for the win.

Taurasi seemed very disappointed in her team's effort, as she stated "Today, I wouldn’t say anyone played particularly well on our team. We had a lot of opportunities, and we didn’t play well. Houston got double figures from a lot of people. We just really couldn’t maintain today.” She seemed miss the fact that the Mercury had five double figure scorers just as the Comets did, led by her game-high 31-point performance. Unfortunately for Phoenix, it just came down to the last few minutes of the game...with Houston's late game 10-0 run making the difference, scoring the ten points in only one minute of play.

The Comets closed out the game with five players scoring in double-digits, led by Tina Thompson with 19 points and seven rebounds. Michelle Snow added 16 points and six rebounds, followed by rookie reserve Matee Ajavon with 12 points, and Tamecka Dixon and Johnson each had 10 points. Sancho Lyttle grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.

The Houston Comets (12-12) will be back in Reliant Arena Thursday July 24 at 8:30 p.m. CDT against the WNBA Eastern Conference leading Detroit Shock (16-9). The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.

The Phoenix Mercury (11-13) will take on the Sacramento Monarchs (13-11) at Arco Arena on Thursday, July 24 at 11:30 a.m. PDT. The game will be broadcast on KHTK 1140 AM.