SACRAMENTO — The Starzz were philosophical about their ouster from the WNBA playoffs Sunday, an exit hastened by a record-setting performance by Sacramento's Yolanda Griffith and three officials.
"What would I rather have?" said Utah coach Candi Harvey soon after her team's best-ever season was swept out of the playoffs by a 71-66 come-from-behind Sacramento win at Arco Arena, where Utah was at the wrong end of eight league playoff fouling and free-throwing records.
"Would I rather have the other night (Friday), where we were flat-line emotionally? Or would I rather have tonight, with so much desire, and so much hunger to win, and take that into next season and learn from it?" Harvey said.
"We lost our composure a little bit, but dad-gum-it, the will to win and the desire and the hunger was there, and I can always build off that. I can build off that more than I can build off a team that looked like it was back on its heels for 40 minutes," she said, speaking of Friday's inexperience-induced 89-65 loss at the Delta Center to the Monarchs in Game 1 of the best-of-three series.
Sunday afternoon, fueled by an 18-point, 10-rebound performance from forward Adrienne Goodson, Utah owned the first 24 minutes.
"That's all I ever bring is a winning mentality, just getting after it and having no fear or nothing, leaving it all out there on the floor," said Goodson of an afternoon that also included a steal and a blocked shot and a technical foul for pointing at an official who didn't call Sacramento for a foul on a Goodson shot attempt.
Utah held an 11-point lead as late as 15:49 in the second half, but Natalie Williams got her fourth and fifth fouls in a two-minute span about then and had to go to the bench. As she went, she got a technical foul that helped Sacramento move within eight. Williams finished with what was likely her poorest statistical game as a pro with four points and four rebounds, severely limited by Sacramento's swarm and her own foul problems. She refused postgame comment.
In the last 15:48, Utah was whistled for 18 fouls and two of its three technical fouls to give Sacramento 29 free throws. The Monarchs converted for 24 points as it ate up Utah's lead and took one of their own, tying at 55 and taking their first lead since 9-8 at 57-55. The Starzz's last advantage was 66-65 on a Marie Ferdinand jump shot; it lasted until Kedra Holland-Corn scored two free throws with 57.4 seconds left.
In the same time frame, the Monarchs shot 7-for-17 from the field.
The Starzz fouls totaled a WNBA playoff-record 31, breaking the old mark by three.
Griffith totaled a playoff-high 30 points including a record 18-for-24 shooting at the foul line. The old playoff mark for free throws made was 13, and the old record for attempts was 15. Sacramento as a team broke the playoff mark of 32 made with 39 and of 42 taken with 47. The teams combined broke three more playoff records for makes (59, breaking a record of 48), attempts (73, old mark 64) and total fouls (51, old 49).
It happened as Sacramento planned, according to coach Maura McHugh, who took over her team at mid-season because Sonny Allen resigned a week before Utah's Fred Williams left the team to Harvey. "It got to be a physical game," McHugh said. "We knew we had to get to the basket and look to get fouled."
Monarch forward Ruthie Bolton-Holifield kicked in 13 points off the bench. She said "Utah is a great team, and they really made us play. I feel better about our team than I've ever felt."
"The hard thing is, we had this game," said Starzz guard Jennifer Azzi. "Down the stretch, we had some things not go our way, which is unfortunate because I think we're the better basketball team, but we just need the experience. It's definitely disappointing. Our goal was to make it to the playoffs, and I think what we found was that we didn't have the experience to go on, and Sacramento does."
Ferdinand agreed. "For us to play so well and not come up with the win, that's just a horrible feeling because we outplayed them, if you look at the statistics," she said. Ferdinand contributed 15 points, as did center Margo Dydek, who added eight rebounds.
Ferdinand said that Williams fouling out with 6:59 left and Utah leading 55-52 hurt because it left Utah with no one to control Griffith on the boards.
"But we kind of put it on ourselves when we started getting on the refs and losing our focus and arguing," said Ferdinand. "We should have stayed with the game plan. We gave them extra points. It's probably lack of experience for us, but collectively we're going to work hard in the off-season and be hungrier than we were this season."
That was Harvey's approach, too. "We talked before the playoffs ever started about not letting external forces bother us. Officiating is an external force," she said. "We can't control that. Officiating is what it is. I'm not going to make any comment about that. It's not going to change it. How we dealt with it, we can change."
About the technicals, she said, "You know what? At least they were emotionally involved. Maybe a little bit too much, obviously so. We've just got to be smarter and learn from this and not make those mistakes next year."
Dydek, the Polish Olympian, likened Utah's final loss to the medal round in Sydney. "Better to have gold, or even bronze, medal," she said. "Nobody likes the silver medal because it means you lost the (championship) game. It's how I feel right now."
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