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| Sting come back to even series with Liberty |
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| RECAP | BOX SCORE | |||
NEW YORK -- Teresa Weatherspoon is determined not to let her
goose egg in the scoring column or her strained hamstring keep the New York Liberty out
of their third straight WNBA Finals.
The Liberty have reached three of the four WNBA title games, but
the resurgent Charlotte Sting stand in their way heading into the
decisive Game 3 of the WNBA Eastern Conference finals Monday night.
Dawn Staley and Andrea Stinson scored 18 points apiece for the
Sting, who evened the series with a 62-53 victory Sunday at Madison
Square Garden.
The winner will play the winner of the Los Angeles
Sparks-Sacramento Monarchs series on Thursday, which also is tied
1-1.
Staley scored 14 first-half points, mostly against Weatherspoon,
who was slowed by a hamstring injury suffered in last week's
playoff victory against the Miami Sol.
Weatherspoon shot 0-for-6 and did not score.
"It was almost as if Dawn did exactly what she wanted to do,"
Weatherspoon said. "I can't let that happen. This is a team that's
in the way of what we want. That's a championship ring and
championship trophy."
Stinson did the damage in the second half, scoring 16 of her
team's final 22 points.
Charlotte closed the game with an 18-7 run behind the five-year
veteran who is one of the toughest players in the WNBA to defend
1-on-1.
"I kind of felt like I was laid back where I let my teammates
do all the work," Stinson said of her 2-point first-half
performance. "So I decided I would step up and try to get them
going."
She added eight assists and eight rebounds for the Sting, who
lost Game 1 by allowing the Liberty to score the final 13 points.
After Tamika Whitmore's jumper gave the Liberty a 42-40 lead,
New York made just three field goals in the final 15 minutes while
Stinson went on her scoring spree.
"Down the stretch, we didn't make shots," New York's Crystal
Robinson said. "I had three that just kind of bobbled around and
popped out. Those shots go down, it changes the face of the game."
Vickie Johnson had 16 points and Robinson 13 for the Liberty,
who shot just 2-for-11 from 3-point range.
Allison Feaster added 11 points and eight rebounds for the
Sting, who shot 9-for-18 from behind the arc.
Stinson added a 3-pointer for a 49-48 lead with nine minutes
left, then came up with a steal near midcourt for a layup and a
51-48 lead that took the crowd of 17,429 -- which included Barry
Bonds of the San Francisco Giants -- out of the game.
Stinson added another 3-pointer as the shot clock was winding
down to give the Sting a 56-50 lead with five minutes left.
Charlotte, which lost to New York in three games in their only
other conference finals appearance in 1999, has fashioned an
impressive turnaround this season. The Sting began 1-10, but
finished 17-4 during the regular season.
Sting coach Anne Donovan says her team knows about pressure
situations heading into Game 3.
"Starting out 1-10, every game after that was a must-win,"
Donovan said. "It was a total team effort, and we're looking
forward to another contest."
New York is 5-0 when facing playoff elimination at Madison
Square Garden.
Weatherspoon and Stinson, who have started every game in the
WNBA's five-year history, will be key players in the outcome.
"It's a matter of us coming out Monday night and being
aggressive defensively," Weatherspoon said. "That's the bottom
line."
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ALSO SEE WNBA Scoreboard Charlotte team page New York team page AUDIO/VIDEO   Andrea Stinson takes command for the Sting and helps force a Game 3.avi: 1739 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN Cable Modem | |
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