League most valuable player Lauren Jackson of Australia scored 26 points and Swin Cash added 19 as the Seattle Storm moved one game away from their second WNBA title with an 87-84 win over the Atlanta Dream in Game 2 of the finals on Tuesday. Seattle is now unbeaten in 21 home games this season and is hoping it won’t need another game at Key Arena. ThACCe best-of-five series resumes today in Atlanta, Georgia.
Iziane Castro Marques kept Atlanta close with 21 points, before fouling out in the final minute. Castro Marques tossed in a number of one-handed runners in the second half, trying to make up for an off night from Angel McCoughtry, who made just seven of 23 shots and finished with 21 points.
Atlanta rallied in the final 30 seconds with five quick points from McCoughtry and a jumper by Kelly Miller cutting the deficit to 87-84 with 3 seconds left.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Cash missed two free throws with 2.2 seconds to go but Atlanta could not get off a potential tying shot.
McCoughtry, averaging 28 points entering the finals, was held to just 19 points in 21 minutes in Game 1, saddled by early foul trouble and slowed when she needed stitches above her left eye following a fourth-quarter collision.
McCoughtry continued to struggle with her shot in Game 2. She missed 10 of her first 11 attempts, before hitting four straight at the end of the first half, including a falling-down 3-pointer at the halftime horn that trimmed Atlanta’s deficit to 49-47.
However, McCoughtry went cold in the second half. She took just eight shots after the break and was flustered by the defense of Cash and Tanisha Wright, with the long arms of Jackson always lurking nearby.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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