Sacramento upsets Sun as Griffith pours in 25

Yolanda Griffith made the most of her first appearance in the WNBA Finals, scoring 25 points Wednesday night as the Sacramento Monarchs beat the Connecticut Sun 69-65 to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-5 series at Uncasville, Conn.

The Monarchs lost both regular-season meetings but used a strong inside game, anchored by Griffith, to hand Connecticut a rare home loss. The Sun had lost only three games all year at the Mohegan Sun arena coming in. Game 2 is tonight in Connecticut.

•Temeka Johnson of the Washington Mystics easily won the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year award, and headlined the league’s first All-Rookie team.

Johnson received 44 of a possible 50 votes from a national media panel, and beat out Katie Feenstra of the San Antonio Silver Stars (four votes), Tan White of the Indiana Fever (two votes) and Seattle’s Suzy Batkovic (one vote).