Houston Comets Advance to Conference Finals
H O U S T O N, Aug. 15, 2000 -- The Sacramento Monarchs did their part to makecoach Sonny Allen’s prediction come true.
Allen said in preseason that the Houston Comets would win theirfourth WNBA championship, and they took a step in that directionMonday night by eliminating Allen’s Monarchs from the playoffs with a 75-70 victory.
The Comets were hearing chants of “Beat L.A., Beat L.A.” inthe final seconds of their sweep of the best-of-three series. Theywill play host to the Los Angeles Sparks on Thursday in the firstgame of the conference finals.
Predicting Victory
“I said it before the season and I’m sticking to it,” Allensaid. “They [the Sparks] beat the Comets in the regular season,but they haven’t played them for the championship yet.”
The Sparks beat the Comets three times in the regular season.
“They beat us here the last game so our fans are alreadychanting to beat L.A.,” Swoopes said. “Our fans are going to feedoff that. It’s going to be good for us.”
Swoopes led the Comets through several challenges by theMonarchs, but it was Tina Thompson who scored seven of her 21points in the final 2:37 to clinch the victory. Thompson was6-for-7 on free throws and got 14 rebounds. Cynthia Cooper added 16points.
“They did what they were supposed to do, set the tone and beaggressive,” Thompson said. “They had to do something or sit forthe summer. They tried to test us, but we weathered the storm.”
Ruthie Bolton-Holifield led the Monarchs with 23 points, andYolanda Griffith had 18 points and 10 rebounds.
“Their experience paid off for them at the end,” Allen said.“We are now going back to Sacramento, but we will still bethinking about this game. We led in the first and second half, butwe couldn’t pull it out.”
Swoopes led a 17-2 charge in the first half that gave the Cometsa 31-23 lead, but Sacramento closed to 38-37 at the end of thefirst half and stayed close to the Comets throughout the secondhalf.
Sacramento took a 46-40 lead early in the second half, but theComets pulled ahead for good at 53-52 on a full-court pass fromSwoopes to Cooper for a layup with 12:00 to play.
“The Houston Comets were the difference in the game,” Allensaid. “We played good, but to beat the best, there is not muchmargin for error.”
Led by Bolton-Holifield with 11 first-half points, the Monarchsjumped ahead and held a 21-14 lead before Swoopes took over.
“We didn’t do the little things down the stretch, and it’s thelittle things that win championships,” Griffith said. “We cameout very loose tonight even though everyone said that our backswere up against the wall.”
Swoopes Leads Surge
“They had all the pressure on them and that is why we came outloose and played probably the best game that we played all year.”
Swoopes led the 17-2 Comets surge with eight straight pointsthat also included a rebound and assist as the Comets took a 31-23lead with 6:59 left in the half.
“I think we knew coming into this game how physical it wasgoing to be, how tough it was going to be,” Swoopes said. “Theyare a very good team. To beat a team like that, that good, thereand then here, it’s definitely a huge accomplishment.”