LIBERTY 76 - SPARKS 73
The New York Liberty, of the WNBA, and featuring Cardinal greats Kylee Shook and Jazmine Jones were far away from their Brooklyn home court yesterday in their Fathers Day WNBA tilt with the Los Angeles Sparks in the L.A. Convention Center . They got a huge fourth quarter from Shook and got the three-point win to improve to 7-6 in an exciting fourth quarter.
Shook had five points in a key stretch in the final quarter, nailing a three and getting a wide open layup to keep NYL in the lead against the Sparks, who fell to 5-7 on the season. New York survived two late three-point attempts by LA, one of which was blocked by Rebecca Allen, in the final possession of the game to hold on.
It's a bit of a different look currently for the Libs, second-year guard Sabrina Ionescu saw just 21 minutes and totaled nine points for the visitors. Allen, Australian Sami Whitcomb picked up the scoring slack, though with 36 points combined Jazmine saw 13 minutes of action and contributed a couple of rebounds and assists but no points.
The Libs were facing their center from last year in Amanda Zahui B, now in a LA jersey, and Shook did the job defensively on her -- limiting her to four points in 11 minutes.
It was a celebratory game of sorts, 24 years ago the Sparks and Libs squared off in what was the first official game of the WNBA. The league has been through some ups and downs in this almost-quarter century, but is riding an all-time high in popularity currently and providing some very exciting basketball.
*******************************************
A quick Monday Morning check of the league standings shows New York in second place in the Eastern Conference, a game back of the Connecticut Sun and in fourth place overall in the conference standings. The Western Conference has the two current powerhouses with the Seattle Storm holding a 12-2 mark and the Las Vegas Aces sitting at 10-3
Myisha Hines-Allen's Washington Mystics are at .500 in the East, with a 6-6 record and Dana Evans and the Chicago Sky are also at .500 in the East at 7-7.
Hines-Allen will be out for a few upcoming games with a strained left patellar tendon strain, but the good news is that she doesn't appear to need surgery.
Watching the end of the Mystics vs. Dream game Saturday nigh, t I was amazed to see so many Mystics on the sidelines in street clothes. Besides Hines-Allen, Alysha Clark is out with an ankle injury, Elena Della Donne is still having back issues, Erica McCall out with a knee injury, and Natashia Cloud injured an ankle in the game. The Mystics had just six available players by the end of the game against Atlanta. Fortunately for them, one of them was "the black hole of Washington" Tina Charles, who ended up with 39 minutes, 30 points and 15 rebounds,
It's rumored the last time Tina passed on a shot opportunity was in the Obama Administration. But, in the words of Jeff Walz and Deb Antonelli -- scoring wins games and brings in fans, so ice up the shoulder, Tina, and keep hoisting.
***************************
A nice slate of games are on tap for Tuesday -- the Libs finally get back home and will entertain Dana and the Chicago Sky. (Three Cardinal greats in the same venue!) The Mystics will face a tough task at league-leading Seattle (most likely without Myisha) and the Dallas Wings will travel to Connecticut to face the Sun.
****************************
FINALLY...
If you're here looking for an update on the Shoni Schimmel situation, we are Sgt. Schultz on the issue, (we know nothing.) When main-stream media reports on it, you'll find out as soon as we do.
Have a Marvelous Monday!
paulie
Kylee DID look good in the second half and Rebecca Allen is something else. I hpe the Libs can keep it up. How about Dana, Kylee and Jaz all in the same arena Tuesday! All we need is Bionca up front, Kasa at guard and Ya-Ya coming in off the bench, right?
ReplyDeleteNick O.