Saturday night, I think it happened. The Sparksplayed the Connecticut Sun in Connecticut and came away with the 89-80 win— oursecond road win of the season. The leadchanged five times in the first quarter, but once the Sparks took the lead withthree minutes left in the first quarter, we never relinquished it.
We didn’t play a perfect game, but we played a completegame, competing hard for 40 full minutes on both ends of the court. Everything that wasn’t working for us againstIndiana on Thursday worked just fine on Saturday. We established our perimeter game from thestart, with our first nine points coming via three-pointers from MarieFerdinand-Harris, DeLisha Milton-Jones and Tina Thompson. With Noelle Quinn and Kristi Toliver, thefive of them went on to connect on a total of 15 three-point baskets, shootingas a team over 51% from outside. A totalof 18 of our 27 first quarter points came from outside the arc.
We also took very good care of the ball in the first half,when we had only two turnovers and six steals, while the Sun had almost theopposite: two steals and nine turnovers. By the time the horn blew signaling theend of the half, we were up 45-35, building on our seven-point first quarter lead,and playing together.
Of course, as any Sparks fan who has been paying attentionknows, the game is not over at halftime. Anything can happen in the second half of a Sparks game. When we started off the third quarter with alayup, a steal and a block, and the Sun opened with two turnovers and a foul, Ifelt pretty good. And then Noelle Quinn,who lately has been struggling a little to score, and only had one first-halfpoint, put up her fourth shot attempt of the night from beyond the arc and itfell straight to the bottom of the net, giving the Sparks a 15-point lead, Ifelt very good. We pushed the lead to 17 late in the quarter, but the Sunfought back and in the last minute and a half scored seven quick points to cutthe lead back to the ten it had been at the start.
Ten more minutes of basketball, with the Sparks up by 10,playing hard for the first 30 minutes. Here was their chance to play a complete 40 minutes.The fourth quarter opened with a reverse ofthe third. The Sun continued theirscoring run from the end of the third, scoring 5 quick points, while we had twoquick turnovers and suddenly our ten point lead was cut in half. Then Noelle stepped up yet again andconnected from long range to push it back up to eight. After another Sun layup, Kelsey Griffin fromthe Sun got free to score a three, cutting the lead to three, but Toliveranswered back with one of her own and the battle of the fourth quarter was on.
The Sun cut the lead to four with just over six minutes leftin the game, but both teams went on a scoring drought, letting three minutesrun off the clock before anyone scored again. Like the Sparks on Thursday, the Sun could not get anything to fall. In that three-minute stretch, they took sevenfutile shots and did not score again until just over two and a half minuteswere left in the game. The Sparks stayedcalm, together and in the moment, eventually driving the lead back up to 10 withjust under a minute left in the game. Iadmit, I was still a little worried. Ihad seen how quickly the Sun could score and they are fighting hard for theirplayoff spot in the East, and I am sure counting on this game to go in theirwin column. But finally the Sun had tostart fouling and I knew we had it. Forty full minutes of team basketball by the Sparks with five of ourplayers in double-digit scoring and 24 assists on our 30 baskets. A complete game.
Now we just have to do that 11 more times.
Katherine Goodman
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