WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Momentum has continued to carry over for these Los Angeles Sparks.
The Sparks had a rematch of last week's bout with the Mystics. A different venue but it was the same result. Los Angeles overcame a slow start and upended Washington, 93-86. The Sparks win three games in a row for the first time in nearly two years.
Los Angeles was dancing to the Pink Pony Club too much and down, 24-8, in the first quarter before finishing the period with an 8-2 flourish. The Sparks(9-14) would continue the surge in the second quarter and take the lead. They would enter tied at the end of three before the Sparks pulled away at the end with huge buckets from Rickea Jackson and Dearica Hamby. Julie Allemand also had a huge rebound putback that kept the Mystics at bay.
"I joked with Coach (Lynne Roberts) that I was still in Indiana in that first half, trying to get that rhythm back going," Jackson mused, who scored 20 points in the second half. "But I feel like my teammates found me and we just played really good basketball in the second quarter. We had a line-up at Rae (Burrell) at the four and it worked! So I feel like we just making whatever they do wrong and I feel like we're just turning in the right direction. So that's why we've just been moving the ball really well and limit our turnovers."
While the Sparks had 16 turnovers in the game, only nine of them came after the first quarter, playing relatively clean basketball the rest of the way. But it did not look great early on for the Sparks.
"I think the key is to just not panic," Coach Roberts said. "We defensively were not aggressive. I felt like we were so prepared with the scout that it almost looked like we were thinking out there instead of just playing. And so I reminded them to just pick up the defensive identity. But with 36 minutes to go, if you panic, you're screwed. So that's what I'm most proud of, just that we didn't panic. And they stayed steady."
"I was saying the first quarter, we came into the huddle and we knew we were playing like (expletive)," forward Dearica Hamby said. "So just reminding ourselves that we can't get any worse than that and we need to (expletive) play some defense. We also were turning the ball over and we're a team that typically feeds off of that, off our offense. So once we started seeing the ball go in, I felt like we got better on both ends. And just the consistency of what we've been talking about all season, playing through, and we did it. We're learning how to win."
"I'm just proud of how we let our frustration fuel us to want to do better and not get in our feelings rolled over," Jackson followed up. "We could've easily rolled over against this team but we continued to punch. We continued to work it out. So I'm just proud of the mentality that we had. It just goes to show our mentality is getting stronger and stronger as a team and we're truly just trusting each other. And we can beat anybody moving or playing how we played in the second half."
The bench had some contributions, too, as Rae Burrell did damage on both ends of the court. Julie Vanloo provided steady back-up minutes against her former team. Sania Feagin and Sarah Ashlee Barker played limited minutes but Feagin used her size to her advantage and Barker made a key three in that Sparks comeback.
"Great teams need their bench. Everybody has a role and everybody matters," Roberts said of her bench. "I think tonight, it showed some punch off the bench and what that can do for a team."
Hamby finished with another double-double with 24 points and 14 boards. Jackson scored 22 points overall while AzurΓ‘ Stevens provided 15. On the Mystics' (11-12) side, Brittney Sykes led the team with 18 points while Shakira Austin did her thing in the paint with 17. Kiki Iriafen had 13 points while Sonia Citron was hounded all over the court and was limited to seven points.
The Sparks will attempt to win their fourth straight game as they face the Sun in Connecticut on Thursday.
