Sep 27, 2008 - 8:16 PM
0 shoutsBy PA SportsTicker
SAN ANTONIO 67, LOS ANGELES 66 ------------------------------
SAN ANTONIO (Ticker) -- Sophia Young proved to be the woman of the hour with the season on the line for the San Antonio Silver Stars.
Young sank a desperation runner as time expired to give San Antonio a dramatic 67-66 victory over the Los Angeles Sparks in Game Two of the Western Conference finals on Saturday.
The top-seeded Silver Stars were on the brink of elimination after DeLisha Milton-Jones grabbed an offensive rebound off a missed layup by Temeka Johnson and scored to give the Sparks a 66-65 edge with 1.3 seconds remaining.
After calling a timeout, San Antonio inbounded the ball on the right wing to Young, who had given her team a 65-64 edge with 11 seconds left with a pair of free throws.
The second-year forward immediately spun to her left against Jessica Moore and threw up a shot that bounced off the backboard, hit the front of the rim and off the backboard a second time before going in.
With the improbable shot, Young and the Silver Stars forced a decisive Game Three scheduled here for Sunday. The winner will advance to the WNBA Finals.
Young finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds and Becky Hammon scored 19, including two 3-pointers in the closing 3:46.
Rookie Candace Parker had 19 points and 17 rebounds and Lisa Leslie added 17 and 12 for Los Angeles, which is looking to return to the league championship for the first time since 2003.
The Sparks had a 64-60 lead after Milton-Jones was fouled on a layup with 1:33 remaining. However, she missed the ensuing free throw, Hammon sank a shot from the arc and Los Angeles committed a costly shot-clock violation with 27 seconds to play.
