Sun 78, Comets 71

The fans who attended Monday night's competition (I'm still unsure if it were a scrimmage or an actual game) between the Houston Comets and the Connecticut Sun were treated to some exciting basketball mixed in with some bad spurts by both teams. Connecticut defeated the Comets 78 to 71. Tonight's match-up wraps up the preseason for the Comets while the Sun travel to San Antonio for a Tuesday preseason finale versus the Silver Stars.

Michelle Snow scored the first points of the game with a turnaround shot and a free throw. After tying the game at 6, Houston finished the first quarter with a 13 to 8 run to lead 19 to 14 at the end of 10 minutes. Free agent signee forward Hamchetou Maiga-Ba led the Comets with six points in the first quarter.

Houston's offense went ice cold in the second quarter. Connectict cranked up the defense and the offense followed right a long. The Sun outscored the Comets 22 to 6 in the second period and took a 36 to 25 lead into halftime. Sun forward Asjha Jones scored 10 points on a variety of moves (pull-up jump shots; turnarounds; etc.) in the period.

Sancho Lyttle started the third quarter with a lay-up and Snow followed up with a turnaround jumper to pull the Comets within seven points (36 to 29). Then, the Sun took advantage of a porous Comets' defense over and over throughout the rest of the third period. Connecticut drained 8 of 10 three-point shots in the quarter as guards Jamie Carey and Lindsay Whalen each nailed three shots from behind the arc. Connecticut's final seven made shots of the third quarter were all three-point baskets. The Sun led by as many as 20 points (62 to 42) during the quarter and led 62 to 44 at the end of the third stanza.

Sheryl Swoopes made two free throws to start the scoring in the fourth period. Sun rookie guard Cori Chambers sandwiched two made three-pointers around a putback lay-up by Comets' center Yelena Leuchanka to give Connecticut a 68 to 48 lead with about 7:40 left in the ball game. Leuchanka and Mistie Williams combined for six straight points during a 7-0 Comets' run to trim Houston's deficit to 13 points (68 to 55) before Chambers and Whalen stopped the run with a jump shot and a lay-up. Leuchanka and Williams scored back-to-back baskets to make the score 72 to 59 Connecticut before the Sun doused the rally with a pull-up jumper by Jamie Carey and a lay-up by center Laura Summerton with 2:22 left in the game.

Williams scored a lay-up and rookie guard Dee Davis scored eight straight points to close out the scoring.


Notes:
During halftime, Comets owner Hilton Koch mentioned to the fans, about 2,000 season ticket holders (down from a high of 7,000 at Compaq Center) have been purchased for the 2007 Comets' season. Koch encouraged the fans to "bring a friend" to the home games this season with a goal to double the number of season-tickets sold for the 2008 season.

These stats may not be correct:
Lindsay Whalen led the Sun with 15 points; followed by 14 each from Asjha Jones and Jamie Carey. Whalen made 3 threes; Carey made four threes. Katie Douglas and Corei Chambers each added 8 points.

Maiga-Ba scored 10 points. Ashley Shields scored 9 (perhaps 13; because, for some reason, I wrote down a number 30 scoring four points for the Comets. The Comets don't have a #30.) Davis, Lyttle, Leuchanka and Williams each scored 8 points.

After the game, I interviewed Sun head coach Mike Thibault. One of the things we discussed were his thoughts on the Comets team. He said, "I think, first of all, they're going to have one of the best front lines in the Western Conference. To be blunt, the question marks are at guard. 'Whose going to be the point guard?' 'Whose going to run the team?'

"With Tina, Sheryl, and Michelle, Sancho, Mistie and those guys, I think the front line is pretty solid; but, they don't have any decisions made probably yet on the backcourt; and, unfortunately, you need to solidify that in order to have a chance to win the conference. I think that's their biggest priority right now."

I asked Comets Coach Karleen Thompson about the backcourt situation and she told me, "Well, we're young; and, they've been thrown into the fire. They don't have the opportunity to get acclimated to the professional level. I'm excited about the response that I've gotten from them; being able to sustain all the pressure that they've been under; and to come out and perform the way they have been. I mean we have to things to work on as do a lot of people. We're young; but, we have some great young talent; so, that's always a plus -- to be able to add to our nucleus that's already been here."