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Sparks hit 15 3-pointers in 89-80 win over Sun

Jul 25, 2010 - 3:57 AM UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) -- DeLisha Milton-Jones scored 20 points and the Los Angeles Sparks set a franchise-record with 15 3-pointers in an 89-80 victory over the Connecticut Sun on Saturday night.

Ticha Penicheiro had 17 points, Kristi Toliver added 15, Noelle Quinn 14 and Tina Thompson 11 for Los Angeles (7-16).

"We'll take any win that we can get right now," Penicheiro said. "We play well in spurts but we never put a 40-minute game together. Today was the same thing. We took a 17-point lead and they came back and got within three points and I said to myself, 'Uh oh, here we go again.' But we were able to stick it out, make shots when we needed to and get stops when we needed them."

The Sparks were 15 for 29 (52 percent) on 3s, eclipsing the previous record of 11 set against Sacramento on Aug. 3, 2002, and finished 30 for 66 overall from the field.

Milton-Jones was 4 for 7 from beyond the arc, Toliver 4 for 8 and Quinn 3 for 4.

"I think the extra pass is what got people open," Sparks coach Jennifer Gillom said. "Normally we would take poor shots, but tonight we didn't take too many contested shots. We made the pass to the open man and then we knocked them down. I think that was key in our effort behind the 3-point line."

Renee Montgomery scored 14 points, Tan White had 13 and Sandrine Gruda 12 for the Sun (12-10), losers of two straight and five of seven. Kelsey Griffin and Asjha Jones added 10 points each.

"They were just knocking their shots down," White said. "When you are playing against a team shooting (52) percent from the 3-point line, it's hard to get momentum."

After Jones' layup pulled the Sun to 74-69 with about 2 1/2 minutes left, the Sparks scored the next seven points to pull away. Quinn hit a 3 with 2:15 to go and then made a jumper with 53 seconds left, and Penicheiro made two free throws 7 1/2 seconds later to extend the lead to 81-69.

Montgomery, who scored nine points in the final 30 seconds of regulation in an overtime loss to New York on Tuesday night, scored 11 in the final 41 seconds against the Sparks, but it wasn't enough.

Los Angeles was 8 for 10 from the line in the final 40 seconds to seal the win.

"They have really smart players," Sun coach Mike Thibault said. "Penicheiro, Tina Thompson, DeLisha Milton, Noelle Quinn, Marie Ferdinand. They've been around. They're smart and they're teaching people like Toliver and (Lindsay) Wisdom-Hylton how to be smart. That's the best I've seen them play offensively in quite awhile."

Connecticut rookie Tina Charles, who has a league-leading 15 double-doubles on the season, finished with nine points and nine rebounds.