PHOENIX -- Cynthia Cooper resigned as coach of the Phoenix Mercury hours before the team's 62-53 win over the Seattle Storm on Wednesday night.

Cooper, who was 19-23 less than 1½ years into her first head coaching job, met with team president Bryan Colangelo and general manager Seth Sulka before the game.

"I decided that the best thing for me, my family and the organization as a whole was for me to step down,'' Cooper said in a statement.

Mercury general manager Seth Sulka appointed assistant coach Linda Sharp interim head coach and said she would run the team for the game, with Eric Cooper, another Cooper assistant, and video coordinator Ron DuBois helping.

"That's an emotional locker room right now,'' Sulka said. "They played hard for her, went through training camp and they gave a lot. But coaching changes happen in all sports all the time. It's part of sports, and I would expect professional athletes to go out there and play hard, but certainly I expect them to be affected as people.''

Team president Bryan Colangelo, who also is president and general manager of the Phoenix Suns, was occupied with the NBA draft, and he and Sulka didn't have time to map out the future beyond the immediate game after Cooper broke the news following a meeting with the two executives.

Cynthia Cooper and her husband, Bryan Dyke, are the parents of twins born June 15 with the assistance of a surrogate mother, and Sulka, the father of two sets of twins, said the rigors of keeping up with two newborns may have played a part in the coach's decision.

"It's stressful and it's grueling,'' Sulka said.

He thought there was less stress from team-related factors like the retirement of point guard Michele Timms, the pregnancy that kept 6-foot-8 Maria Stepanova from playing, conduct problems with forward Brandy Reed, who was suspended June 18, and a blowup with popular forward Lisa Harrison on Sunday.

"It was certainly frustrating on all of us, but Cynthia Cooper is not afraid of challenges, not afraid of dealing with situations that come up,'' Sulka said. "She always met those head-on, and she's a very direct person. I think as tough as those were, she knew it was part of coaching.''

Cooper was hired in January 2001 to replace Cheryl Miller, the initial coach of the WNBA charter franchise. Her team was 13-19 and 6-4 this season, with two straight losses.

Before going into coaching, Cooper, 39, led the Houston Comets to four straight titles and was named championship series MVP all four years. She also was a four-time All-Star and won the league's regular-season MVP award twice and scoring title three times.

In the 2000 season opener, she became the first player in the league to reach 2,000 career points.