Fury can\'t keep up with Spirit
February 16, 2003 - National Women's Basketball League (NWBL)
Dallas Fury News Release
The Tennessee Fury was looking for their first win of the young season tonight. The problem was that they tried to do it against the best team in the league. Coming in to tonight's action the Spirit was 3-0 and sitting on top of the NWBL.
The Tennessee Fury was just looking to crack the win column. Starting off 0-3 is certainly not what Coach Rodney Minggia thought he would be dealing with at this point in the season but with a 94-89 loss to the Springfield Spirit tonight at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum it has become a reality.
The Fury would hang tough in this one. Early in the second half with the Spirit up 70-67 Becky Hammon nailed three of her 24 points to tie things up but that was as close as the Fury could get to a lead. From there Springfield would take over behind Sue Bird who pumped in 11 of her team high 22 points in the last nine minutes to help spark a 18-7 run that would open things up.
Hot shooting by Springfield once again killed Tennessee. The Spirit as a team shot 58% from behind the three-point stripe for the night. Stacey Clinesmith was 4-6 for the game and finished with 16 points. Rebecca Lobo, who killed the Fury in the last meeting, was rather quiet but did go 2-2 from behind the arc to finish up with10 points and 9 boards.
Tonya Washington led the Fury with 24 points and Semeka Randall chipped in 18 points but it wasn't enough.
"We had a lot of opportunities to get back in it but everytime we seemed to answer they would answer right back. We can score all we want, but if we can't stop them on the other end it doesn't matter," said Coach Minggia. The Fury at 0-3 isn't ready to give up.
"We're not panicking," said Semeka Randall "It's tough when you're not winning but I know that our team will stay positive. The main thing right now is getting a win."
Tennessee will have that chance on Tuesday night at 7:30 against the Chicago Blaze. They come to town fresh off a victory over the Houston Stealth. It was their first win of the year.
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National Women's Basketball League Stories from February 16, 2003
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