Stingrays Take Abl Lead Long Beach Takes Opener From Defending Champions

Beverly Williams led a second-half comeback with 11 of her 15 points, and the Long Beach StingRays defeated the Columbus Quest 65-62 in the opening game of the American Basketball League finals.

Yolanda Griffith and Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil scored 16 points each for Long Beach, which trailed 31-27 at halftime.

Tonya Edwards had 17 points, Valerie Still 15 and Katie Smith 10 for the defending champion Quest before an announced crowd of 4,005 at the 4,000-seat Pyramid on the Long Beach State campus.

Game 2 of the best-of-5 series will be played tonight in Long Beach before the series shifts to Columbus, where Game 3 will be played Wednesday night.

The fourth and fifth games, if necessary, would be played Friday and Sunday in Columbus, where the Quest were 21-1 during the regular season and won their only playoff game.

Davis-Wrightsil made four free throws as the StingRays opened the fourth quarter with six consecutive points to increase their lead to 51-44. The Quest pulled within two on Smith’s layup with 4:39 left, only to be out-scored 7-2 over the next 2-1/2 minutes.

Still’s three-point basket with 32.7 seconds remaining completed the scoring. Columbus regained the ball with 6.2 left following Long Beach’s 25-second shot clock violation, but Andrea Lloyd’s 3-point shot missed as time expired.

StingRays 65, Quest 62 At Long Beach, Calif.

Columbus (62) - Lloyd 2-6 2-2 7, Smith 4-15 2-3 10, V.Still 6-15 2-2 15, Johnson 3-8 0-1 6, Edwards 5-12 4-7 17, Tate 2-5 0-0 4, Davis 0-0 0-0 0, Potthoff 0-1 3-4 3. Totals 22-62 13-19 62.

Long Beach (65) - Davis 5-13 6-6 16, Griffith 6-8 4-5 16, Lacy 2-6 4-4 8, Williams 5-12 4-4 15, Nagy 0-3 0-0 0, Stafford 2-4 1-2 5, Wilkerson 1-1 0-0 2, Johnson 1-6 1-2 3, Bauer 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-54 20-23 65.

Columbus 17 14 13 18 - 62

Long Beach 14 13 18 20 - 65

3-Point goals-Columbus 5-18 (Edwards 3-6, V.Still 1-1, Lloyd 1-2, Johnson 0-1, Tate 0-1, Potthoff 0-1, Smith 0-6), Long Beach 1-7 (Williams 1-2, Nagy 0-1, Johnson 0-1, Davis 0-3). Fouled out-None. Rebounds-Columbus 35 (Johnson 8), Long Beach 45 (Griffith 18). Assists-Columbus 14 (Edwards 4), Long Beach 18 (Williams 5). Total fouls- Columbus 23, Long Beach 22. A-4,005.