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BOX SCORE
HOUSTON (Ticker) -- Cynthia Cooper scored nine of her 20 points
during a decisive run to open the second half as the streaking
Houston Comets avenged their only home loss of the season with a
69-58 victory over the Phoenix Mercury on Sunday.
|  | | Not even a foul by Lisa Harrison could keep Houston's Sheryl Swoopes from scoring Sunday. |
Sheryl Swoopes also netted 20 points for the Comets, who were
beaten by Phoenix 80-62 at the Compaq Center on June 3 but
since have reeled off six straight home wins. The three-time
defending WNBA champions have won six in a row overall and maintained their lead
over second-place Los Angeles in the Western
Conference.
"First of all, as a team we played really good team defense.
The first game (against Phoenix), we were just lost," Swoopes
said.
Houston was held to a season-low 21 points in the first half and
trailed by four at the break. But the Comets held the Mercury
to one basket over the first nine minutes of the second half
while taking control.
"We played our game in the second half and played Phoenix's game
in the first," Cooper said. "We tried the full-court press and
that created some chances for us. ... This was an extremely
important win considering they've handed us our only loss at
home."
Janeth Arcain made two free throws and Cooper converted a
three-point play and a layup to put Houston ahead for good,
28-25, just over a minute into the half.
Tina Thompson nailed a 3-pointer before Michelle Griffiths
answered with a layup that turned out to be Phoenix's only
basket for more than six minutes.
Layups by Tiffani Johnson and Thompson stretched the Comets'
lead to 35-27. Swoopes and Thompson each made two free throws
before Cooper hit a pair of baskets and Swoopes made two more
from the line for a 45-27 cushion with 11:39 to play.
"I didn't call a timeout during their second-half run because I
just wanted to play through it," Phoenix coach Cheryl Miller
said. "They outrebounded us, but the issue was that we just
didn't make our shots when it counted."
Thompson suffered an apparent knee injury with six minutes left
and did not return after contributing nine points, 11 rebounds
and four assists.
Tonya Edwards scored 14 points and Jennifer Gillom had 12 for
the Mercury, who have dropped three of four.
"They came out in the second half and attacked us offensively
and defensively," said Phoenix forward Brandy Reed, who scored
six points on 2-of-11 shooting. "There are just some days when
your shots don't fall, and that happened today. You just have to
deal with it. When we play them again, we can't let them attack
us like that."
The Comets overcame 34.5 percent shooting (19-of-55) by
outrebounding the Mercury 40-23. They also limited Phoenix to
40 percent (25-of-63) from the field while outscoring the
Mercury from the line 28-7.
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ALSO SEE
WNBA Scoreboard
RECAPS
Houston 69
Phoenix 58
Minnesota 81
Portland 75
Los Angeles 85
Detroit 63
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Sheryl Swoopes drives the lane for the hoop and the foul.
avi: 579 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
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