Long Beach Goes To Semis With Easy Win

ABL

Yolanda Griffith scored 23 points as the Long Beach StingRays routed the Colorado Xplosion 92-61 on Wednesday night at Long Beach, Calif., to win the first-round ABL playoff series 2-1.

Beverly Williams added 17 points and Venus Lacy 14 for Long Beach, which will open the semifinals Friday night in the Anaheim Arena against the Western Conference champion Portland Power.

Tari Phillips led Colorado with 17 points, and Crystal Robinson added 14.

The StingRays stretched a 40-31 halftime lead to 47-33 with 7:52 left in the third quarter on Lacy’s two baskets and Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil’s three-point play.

StingRays 92, Xplosion 61

Colorado (61) - Hall 3-11 1-2 8, Robinson 4-11 5-5 14, Phillips 8-13 1-4 17, Black 4-8 0-0 8, Campbell 3-11 0-1 6, Wynne 0-1 0-0 0, Masley 0-1 0-0 0, Anderson 0-2 0-1 0, Sheetz 1-3 0-0 2, Ford 2-2 2-3 6, Howard 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 25-65 9-16 61.

Long Beach (92) - Davis-Wrightsil 2-6 1-1 5, Griffith 7-10 9-10 23, Lacy 5-10 4-5 14, Williams 7-14 2-4 17, Nagy 1-3 6-6 8, Stafford 2-9 0-0 4, Wilkerson 0-0 1-3 1, Ruff 0-1 0-0 0, Johnson 3-4 1-2 9, Bauer 5-7 1-2 11. Totals 32-64 25-33 92.

Colorado 12 19 18 12 - 61

Long Beach 17 23 24 28 - 92

3-Point goals-Colorado 2-17 (Hall 1-4, Robinson 1-6, Black 0-1, Sheetz 0-1, Howard 0-2, Campbell 0-3), Long Beach 3-10 (Johnson 2-2, Williams 1-3, Ruff 0-1, Davis-Wrightsil 0-2, Nagy 0-2). Fouled out-Robinson. Rebounds-Colorado 42 (Phillips 11), Long Beach 43 (Griffith 11). Assists-Colorado 12 (Robinson 5), Long Beach 20 (Nagy 7). Total fouls-Colorado 27, Long Beach 20. A-2,650.

All-stars named

Natalie Williams of the Portland Power, the ABL’s scoring and rebounding champion, was the only unanimous pick for the league’s all-star team, announced Wednesday.

Williams, who helped the Power go from a league-worst 14-26 record in 1996-97 to this season’s Western Conference championship, is considered a leading candidate for the ABL most valuable player, to be announced next week.

Williams is averaging 21.9 points and 11.5 rebounds.

The all-star team was selected by a nationwide media panel.

Williams and Teresa Edwards of the Atlanta Glory were the only repeat members on the first team.s Also named to the first team were Griffith of Long Beach, Katie Smith of Columbus and Carolyn Jones of New England.

The second team was made up of Valerie Still of Columbus, Shalonda Enis of Seattle, Adrienne Goodson of Philadelphia, Jennifer Azzi of San Jose and Dawn Staley of Philadelphia.