|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |  |
AUBURN HILLS, Michigan (Ticker) -- For the Detroit Shock, it was deja vu all over again. Then they woke up. Rookie Anna DeForge scored seven of her career-high 13 points during a big first-half run that brought the Shock back from an early deficit and ignited their 80-50 romp over the expansion Miami Sol. The first time the teams played, the Sol also broke out to an early lead and went on to record their first home win, 74-61, on June 13. Tonight, the Sol raced to a 17-9 advantage on a 13-footer by rookie Shantia Owens with 9:44 left. But the Shock shut them down the rest of the way and went on to the second-biggest margin of victory in team history. "It's not like we weren't hustling, it's not like we weren't getting after it," Detroit coach Nancy Lieberman-Cline said. "It's that we were just missing. That's where, instead of going nuts and just yelling at them, you say, 'Hey, we're going to be fine. Stick with our defense, keep playing well and that's what they did.'" Detroit turned it around with a 23-6 charge over the next 9:20. DeForge scored seven points and Wendy Palmer six in the run, which Dominique Canty capped with a layup that made it 32-23 with 24 seconds left before halftime. The closest the Sol got thereafter was six points on two occasions early in the second half. When Sheri Sam hit a 3-pointer with 13:29 left, Miami was within 44-37. The Shock scored the next nine points and DeForge's 3-pointer from the right corner made it 53-37 with 9:49 to play. DeForge was the fourth player off the bench and scored her points in just 13 minutes, hitting 5-of-6 shots and also making two steals. "It's safe to say that I feel like a point guard now," she said. "When I first started, I didn't know what I was doing, but now I feel like I'm helping the team. "If you told me a few weeks ago that I'd be playing a lot of minutes and playing them at the point, I wouldn't have belived it. Hopefully, I can just keep contributing." Rookie center Oksana Zakaluzhnaya scored 10 points in as many minutes and Canty added 10, four assists and four steals for the Shock, who won for the third time in four outings and concluded a 2-1 homestand. "Obviously, you're never happy to be 10-10," Palmer said, refering to the Shock's record. "You'd want to be 20-0, but given where we were on Sunday night (8-10 after losing to Orlando), it's really a blesing. We would have been in big trouble if we hadn't won these games." Katrina Colleton led the Sol with 11 points, Sam finished with eight and Marlies Askamp seven. "We just didn't take care of the ball tonight," Miami coach Ron Rothstein said. "You can't have 24 turnovers or (give up) 28 points against a good team and expect to win." Miami, which suffered its eighth loss in 11 games, had been holding opponents to a league-best 62.0 points per game before the blowout.
|
