Swooped again.
The WNBA-dominating Houston Comets were down by 17 points with 13 minutes to go. Were they worried? Well, they might have said they were, but they weren't. They had Sheryl Swoopes on their side, and they needed little else.Swoopes scored 21 of her game-high 33 points in the last 9:54 of the second half to tie the game at 74 and added four of Houston's 14 overtime points as the Comets came out of the Delta Center Friday night with an 88-84 win over the Utah Starzz.
Houston improved to 14-2, while Utah fell to 5-9 with its third straight loss as it embarks on a four-game Eastern road trip starting Sunday afternoon in New York.
Four points were even taken away from Swoopes, who was called for charging on a made layup to open the second half and lost two made free throws with eight seconds left in the overtime because she shouldn't have gotten free throws in the first place because it was only Utah's third foul of the overtime, a non-shooting backcourt foul.
And Utah's Elena Baranova played terrific defense on Swoopes, even if Baranova could do nothing but criticize her own play, especially when she let Swoopes drive unguarded for a tying basket with :14 left in regulation. "I was sure that somebody would help from behind," said Baranova, "but everybody took off. I was like, foolish girl."
"That's the sign of a good ballplayer when they don't point fingers," said Utah guard Adrienne Goodson, who defended two-time WNBA MVP Cynthia Cooper and held her to 16 points through 40 minutes of regulation time. "We all have to be responsible for our teammates when somebody's on fire like that," she said about Baranova. "She did everything she possibly could."
Goodson scored 16 points, Baranova, 13, Natalie Williams, 18 and Margo Dydek, 24. Debbie Black played all 45 minutes and scored seven, matching her season high. Dydek and Williams had a game-high eight rebounds each. The Starzz held their turnovers to just 14.
Nobody needs to tell Swoopes she's a good player because she doesn't point fingers. She just wins games and spreads the praise. "It was definitely a team win," said Swoopes. "We knew Utah was going to come out and play hard. They told Coach (Van Chancellor) they were going to get us one time this year. But, in overtime, I thought Cynthia did a wonderful job (eight points). I'm glad that we didn't give up."
Utah led by seven points with four minutes left the last time Houston was in town just two weeks ago, and Swoopes and Cooper went to town as the Comets won by 10.
This one was a nail-biter after Baranova made a baseline-reverse layup to keep Utah's lead at 16 points with about nine minutes left. Swoopes had already hit back-to-back layups, then added a three-pointer following the Baranova score, a layup and another layup after a Janeth Arcain three-pointer. Suddenly it was an eight-point lead with 7:16 left, and Swoopes had five more regulation-time baskets in her.
The Comets outscored Utah 36-19 to erase the 17-point lead.
"Let me tell you now," said Houston's Chancellor, "the Utah Jazz, I am amazed. They looked good tonight. They were a handful." It was really the Starzz, not the Jazz, but when they were clicking away in the first 10 minutes of the second half, they might have looked like the Jazz to Houston.
Oddly, in foul trouble, Williams was scoreless through the second 20 minutes of play after getting 14 in the first half. She scored four in the overtime before fouling out.
Dydek also had four in the overtime and finished with four blocked shots and three assists. It was her second game in a row scoring a season high in a losing effort, and she wasn't pleased. "OK, I'm happy," she said facetiously. "I will recognize this when we win. When we lose, I remember just my bad spots."
She defended herself, though, for taking a 3-pointer that was an air ball with 11 seconds left in overtime and Utah down 86-84. It was rebounded by Houston's Tina Thompson and led to the free throws that were taken away from Swoopes, who made them back with :05.7 left when fouled at the center line by Debbie Black. Dydek said she was supposed to throw the ball inside, but her defender helped triple-team Williams and left Dydek wide open.
Likewise, Goodson felt her missed three-pointer at the end of regulation was justified, though Utah coach Fred Williams said the plan was to go inside. Goodson tried to drive but was cut off and took the shot as the buzzer went off.
NOTEZZ: The crowd of 6,702 was the Starzz's biggest since the last time Houston was in town in late June. Many in the crowd made signs declaring Williams their MVP . . . Houston was without Jennifer Rizzotti, who was to get married today . . . Kara Wolters, traded recently to Charlotte but rejected when she failed a physical because of right-knee patellar tendinitis, wasn't on the injured list because two players are already there. She wasn't supposed to play but was pressed into first-half duty.