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Tuesday, Jun. 20 10:00pm ET
Sting wrap up rough trip with a win | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- The loose balls and offensive rebounds were bound to go the Charlotte Sting's way some time. On Tuesday night, they did. Andrea Stinson scored 25 points and Shalonda Enis added 20, including the clinching free throws in overtime, as the Sting beat the Portland Fire 87-85. "It's nice, because this was a tough, tough road trip," Charlotte coach T.R. Dunn said of the four-game swing that included losses to Utah, Sacramento and Los Angeles. "We were able to get some offensive rebounds and a couple of balls bounced loose and our way. We've had some of those go the other way. Finally, we got some of them." Sophia Witherspoon scored 23 and Vanessa Nygaard 18 for the Fire, which lost the matchup between the two worst teams in the WNBA. Portland is 1-7, while Charlotte is 2-8. "We outplayed them in just about every category, but we got beat at the free throw line," Portland coach Linda Hargrove said. "We just gave them too many opportunities. They have three really good one-on-one players, and you can't give them four opportunities." Charlotte hit 19 of 25 free throws and grabbed 34 rebounds to hold off the Fire, which hit 11 of 23 3-pointers but committed 20 turnovers. Portland went ahead 85-82 in overtime as Sylvia Crawley, Witherspoon and Nygaard each hit jump shots. But the Sting was 4-for-6 from the free throw line, including three from Enis, and held the Fire without a basket in the final 2:14. After Dawn Staley missed a jumper, Enis grabbed the rebound and was fouled by Nygaard with 3.3 seconds left. "The last two went in pretty good, but believe me, the pressure was on," said Enis, who had missed one of two moments earlier. "We really needed this win bad. It feels really good. "We knew coming in they were going to give it to us, and they did." Witherspoon, 1-of-7 from the field in the first half, hit two 3-pointers and scored nine of Portland's first 21 points as the Fire built a 10-point lead in the second half. Charlotte tied the game at 67 on Dawn Staley's deep jumper with 6:15 left in regulation. Staley then gave the Sting the lead on its next possession, and Stinson added a pair of free throws for a 71-67 lead. Witherspoon and Nygaard responded with 3-pointers to bring the Fire back. With the game tied at 77, Enis sank two free throws with 18 seconds left to put the Sting ahead 79-77. Witherspoon's leaning jumper tied it at 79. With no timeouts remaining, Staley dribbled upcourt, but her shot was short and Witherspoon grabbed the rebound to send it to overtime. | ALSO SEE WNBA Scoreboard RECAPS Phoenix 74 Minnesota 55
Charlotte 87
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