Top > Sport > 2004 > October > 2004-10-04

Storm stays alive, beats Monarchs

Now, they`re one victory away from the WNBA finals.

Suffocated on offense by a Sacramento swarm as the clock wound down, the Storm got it done at the one place with no hands in their face.

Seattle hit 7 of 10 from the foul line in the final four minutes to close out a 66-54 victory against the Monarchs in KeyArena and even the Western Conference finals at one game apiece.

``It was a little bit frustrating in the last five minutes. (But) I thought we did a nice job of handling it,`` said Storm coach Anne Donovan, whose team squandered a late lead on Friday and lost Game 1 on an overtime buzzer-beater,74-72. ``We know it`s going to come down to the last five minutes in Game 3, just like it did in Game 1 and Game 2.``

``That`s why we played so well in the first half,`` guard Betty Lennox said of the 32-14 bulge the Storm built during the first 14 minutes of the game. ``We knew they would come out on us, we knew they had a run in them.``

Now, it`s a matter of who has the most run left for Tuesday`s deciding game in the best-of-3 set at 7 p.m. in the Key.

``I can`t describe it - we`re lucky we got homecourt advantage because we really worked hard for it this year. It must be pretty scary to come play in KeyArena,`` said Lauren Jackson, whose near-double-double performance of 23 points and nine rebounds set the pace for Seattle in both departments. ``It`s something we`ve worked all season for.``

From Kamila Vodichokova scoring the first four points of the game to Jackson and Bird combining for 10 of the last 13, the Storm led from start to finish in front of 8,737 fans. That one-time 18-point advantage, built on the strength of 60 percent shooting (12 of 20) melted all the way down to 58-54 with 1:03 left.

But this time, there were no turnovers down the stretch, no errant shots. And in fact, Seattle scored the last eight points of the game.

``We got it down to four, but it was just too far to come,`` Monarchs coach John Whisenant said. ``I warned our players it`s human nature to use that third game as a crutch. There were minutes in the game where I was screaming at them that, `You`re playing like you want a third game.```

On the scoreboard, at least, Jackson and Bird made sure of it, whether the Monarchs wanted one or not. The Storm, up 52-39 with 9:07 toplay, managed just one more meaningful field goal: a lay-in by Jackson on a nifty feed from Kamila Vodichkova with 4:59 left for a 56-43 lead.

From there, Jackson hit 3 of 4 from the line, and Bird drained 4 of 6. Bird`s last two came after she stole a Sacramento inbounds pass with 33 seconds remaining.

``We were tentative a little bit during the latter part of the second half,`` said Bird, who finished with 12 points, five rebounds and five assists. ``But we got defensive stops (the Monarchs missed their last two shots and were forced into a bad-pass turnover after cutting it to 58-54), we got rebounds, and we made our free throws.

``We made good plays when we needed to.``

* Storm rumblings: Whoever wins on Tuesday will face the Connecticut Sun for the title. Connecticut completed a two-game sweep of New York for the Eastern Conference title on Sunday, 60-57 on the Sun`s home court.