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Wednesday, Jun. 14 10:00pm ET
Griffiths scores six in OT, lifst Mercury | |||||
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PHOENIX (AP) -- Phoenix Mercury coach Cheryl Miller didn't have to say much to get Michelle Griffiths' attention. Griffiths scored six of her 18 points in overtime as the Phoenix Mercury rallied to beat the expansion Portland Fire 81-80 on Wednesday night. "She said, 'Look for your shot,"' Griffiths said of Miller. " I didn't look at her, because I was scared. She gave me the eyeballs, and I wasn't going to look at her. But I understood what she meant." After Phoenix's Lisa Harrison hit a free throw with 11 seconds remaining, Portland's Sophia Witherspoon -- denied a 3-point attempt -- hit an 18-footer with 2.8 seconds left. On the inbounds play, Harrison got the ball to Tonya Edwards, who was fouled by Witherspoon with 0.6 seconds left. Edwards missed the first attempt, and Jennifer Gillom tipped the ball to Griffiths. Gillom had season highs of 28 points and seven rebounds, and Griffiths also had seven rebounds. "We need to rebound," Griffiths said. "We hadn't been doing that in previous games, but that was the focus in overtime. We needed the blockout." Edwards scored 18 points for the Mercury (5-2), and Brandy Reed had 12. Witherspoon scored 22 points and Alisa Burras had 13 points and nine rebounds for the expansion Fire (1-5), who have lost four straight. "We knew we could play tough with this team," Witherspoon said. "We had a couple easy layups that we missed in overtime and other silly mistakes that really hurt us, but overall I thought we played real well." After Witherspoon hit a 3-pointer with 11.3 seconds left in regulation to produce a 74-74 tie, Burras made a layup early in overtime. But Griffiths hit a 3-pointer with 3:10 left, and sent the Mercury to an 80-78 lead with a three-point play with 30 seconds to go. The Fire had the ball with 16 seconds to play, but Sylvia Crawley missed a 17-footer, and Harrison rebounded and was fouled with 11 seconds left. She made the second foul shot for her only point of the game. Witherspoon missed one long shot, then sank an 18-footer with 2.8 seconds to go. The Mercury had to rally from eight points down with 10 minutes remaining to beat Portland for the second time in 24 hours. Burras said her team learned from the 75-69 loss the night before. "We didn't concentrated on getting the ball in the right places. We didn't rush anything like last night," Burras said. Gillom, the second-highest scorer in league history, also saw progress after scoring 47 points in the back-to-back. She was averaging 4.4 points before this series. "I think last night's game was the start of a new season for me," Gillom said. "I just snapped out of the slump." | ALSO SEE WNBA Scoreboard RECAPS Phoenix 81 Portland 80
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