Final
Parker, Sparks hold off Storm, advance to conference finals
Sep 24, 2008 - 3:47 AM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Despite a furious finish, the Los Angeles Sparks were able to send the Seattle Storm packing early once again.Candace Parker scored 19 points and Lisa Leslie added 15 before fouling out in the final minutes as the Sparks advanced to the Western Conference finals with a 71-64 victory over the Storm in a decisive Game Three of their conference semifinal series on Tuesday night.
Marie Ferdinand-Harris scored 12 points off the bench for Los Angeles, which won for the first time in KeyArena since June 30, 2006 to earn the right to play the San Antonio Silver Stars with a spot in the WNBA Finals on the line. Game One will be at the Staples Center on Thursday.
The 2004 WNBA champions, Seattle has been eliminated in the opening round of the playoffs in four straight seasons. The Storm lost for just the second time at home this season in this one.
Parker, who shot 8-of-13 from the field, led the Sparks to a 14-point advantage heading into the fourth quarter. The Storm made a run, cutting the deficit to three on four separate occasions in the fourth but could get no closer.
It looked even brighter for Seattle, which saw its deficit shrink to five when Leslie fouled out with 2:16 left. But it could not generate any more easy offense the rest of the way.
Tanisha Wright scored 20 points and Camille Little added 17 for the Storm, who played without former league MVP Lauren Jackson due to ankle surgery.
- WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS
WNBA WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS
LOS ANGELES 71
SEATTLE 64 FINAL
Sep 23 11:23 PM - WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS
WNBA HALFTIME 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH TOTAL
--- --- --- --- -----
LOS ANGELES 19 23 42
SEATTLE 16 19 35 HALFTIME
WNBA LOS ANGELES AT SEATTLE
HIGH SCORERS AT HALFTIME
LOS - CANDACE PARKER 16
SEA - TANISHA WRIGHT 16
Sep 23 10:44 PM - WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS
WNBA WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS
LOS ANGELES 38
SEATTLE 33 HALFTIME
Sep 23 10:03 PM - WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS
WNBA WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS
LOS ANGELES 19
SEATTLE 16 END, 1ST QTR
Sep 23 9:28 PM
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