The WNBA recently conducted an Internet poll about which rookie players the WWW-surfing public wanted to see. Of 663 responses, first on the list with 149 votes was Cleveland's Cindy Blodgett, the NCAA scoring champ from Maine who went fifth in the April 29 WNBA Draft. No. 1 pick Margo Dydek, 7-foot-2, from Poland, the Utah Starzz's prize pick, was fourth (89).

The public had its way, at least for the first half Monday night on ESPN as the Starzz concluded their three-game Eastern road swing at Cleveland's Gund Arena with their third straight loss, 90-72.The Rockers were without starting point guard Suzie McConnell Serio, who wanted to rest a stressed foot bone for a game tonight with the New York Liberty. They started Australian Tully Bevilaqua. Utah rushed to a 12-2 lead on eight points from Elena Baranova.

Blodgett entered the game at shooting guard, Dydek picked up her third foul 30 seconds later; and it was Blodgett on the TV screen, Dydek on the bench, and the Rockers really rolling. They went on a 37-9 run before the Starzz scored eight in the final 1:17 of the first half. With :40 left in the first half, Blodgett finally made her first basket, a 3-pointer, and she finished the night with 12 points, second for Cleveland to the 17 scored in 20 easy minutes by Janice Braxton.

By halftime, four Starzz had three fouls each against one of the WNBA's beefiest front lines (Isabelle Fijalkowski, Eva Nemcova, Braxton, Rushia Brown and Orem's Raegan Scott), and Baranova (15 points, six rebounds) got her fourth and fifth fouls less than six minutes into the second half.

"No. 1, Cleveland came out and was very physical," said Starzz guard Tammi Reiss (10 points). "They went right at (Dydek), and that was their game plan. They crashed the offensive boards and defensive boards, and that, with a combination of turnovers (24, leading to 27 Cleveland points), killed us. If you can't get boards, you can't run. With them being physical, they took Margo right out of the game."

But Dydek avoided further foul trouble in the second half and scored a career-high 18 points on 6-for-8 shooting after a scoreless first half. She scored seven of Utah's first nine points of the second half.

"When I play, I can enjoy it," said a frustrated Dydek, not caring much about the points she scored because the Starzz never got closer than 15 points in the final 20 minutes, even though Cleveland put most of its starters on the bench for long periods. "Today, I don't enjoy," Dydek said. "It was bad.

"For me, it is very difficult when you have away games," she said. The Starzz had a 4 a.m. wakeup call in New York Monday morning and were late arriving in Cleveland.

It was the '98 Starzz's first experience with the kind of travel problems the league presents. They may benefit from it Thursday when they host Charlotte in the Delta Center, since the Sting plays at Los Angeles Wednesday night.

"It's very difficult to win, just against the other team. But against referees; it's so different when you play at home," Dydek said.

"She's the first-round draft pick, so we'd like to have her in the game," said Starzz coach Denise Taylor about Dydek. "When she's not in the game, the game is a different game."

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Taylor was also critical of her team. "We put them on the line 20 times in the first half," she observed. "We just fouled because we didn't move our feet. They're tops in the league in field-goal percentage and scoring. They have people who can put the ball in the basket, and we put them on the line. That's too easy."

Taylor said the Starzz's defensive intensity was good the first and last 10 minutes of the game but poor in the middle 20 minutes.

"We've got to play that type of defensive intensity for 40 minutes," she said. "We have not been successful in doing that. We play hard; we don't play smart all the time. We cut it to 13 points (34-21, when Fran Harris rebounded her own missed free throw and hit a field goal) and just didn't make some smart plays (three turnovers, two fouls let Cleveland score the next five points to a 39-21 lead). I see some improvement."

But Taylor noted turnovers and passive rebounding as severe deficiencies.

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