North Carolina State University Athletics
Stinson Leads Overtime Win For Sting
7/25/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
July 24, 2002
CLEVELAND (AP) - Former NC State star Andrea Stinson scored five of her 17 points in overtime to lead the Charlotte Sting to a 73-66 victory over the Cleveland Rockers on Wednesday.
Stinson hit a 3-pointer to give the Sting a 64-60 lead with 3:36 left in overtime and Charlotte went on to its seventh win in the last nine games.
Merlakia Jones scored 20 points to lead Cleveland (8-15), which has lost nine of 11 including three straight.
Dawn Staley scored five of her 15 points in overtime for Charlotte (14-9), which moved within 1? games of first-place Washington in the Eastern Division.
"We hit some huge shots, that's for sure," Sting coach Anne Donovan said. "Cleveland played solid defense in this situations, it wasn't like we had wide-open shots."
Jones hit a 15-foot jumper with 49 seconds left in regulation to give Cleveland its first lead at 58-57.
Jennifer Rizzotti grabbed the rebound of a missed shot by the Sting's Charlotte Smith with 21 seconds left, was fouled, and made two free throws for a three-point lead.
Charlotte's Allison Feaster then hit a 3-pointer with 8.7 seconds left to tie it at 60. It was her first 3-pointer of the game after hitting a career-high six in the last meeting against the Rockers on July 6.
"I think they knew I was going to be the one taking the three because that's just what I do," Feaster said. "I got a little space and found room to shoot."
It was her league-leading 58th 3-pointer of the season.
Jones missed a 10-foot turnaround jumper with two seconds left in regulation.
"We played aggressively in coming back, but Andrea is a go-to player for them and got it done," Jones said.
"Merlakia was very aggressive and showed great leadership in the second half," Rockers coach Dan Hughes said. "We worked hard as a team to get back into it and give ourselves a chance.
"I'm not disappointed in the effort defensively or offensively. I'm only disappointed in the result."
Four times in the second half, Cleveland got within one point - only to have the Sting steal the ball and score on a fastbreak layup each time.
Staley twice tallied easy layups to put Charlotte ahead by three and the Sting went on a 10-2 run to lead 47-36.
Cleveland continued to pressure, however, and Jones scored five points in a 7-0 Rockers run to get her team within 51-49 with 4:41 to play.
Once again, Charlotte countered with a steal and fastbreak layup, this one scored by Tammy Sutton-Brown, assisted by Staley.
Stinson later scored on a similar play to hold off the Rockers.
"Cleveland could have thrown up the white flag, but forced us to gut it out," Donovan said. "Both teams executed very well down the stretch."
Charlotte outscored the Rockers in the first half 9-0 in points off turnovers to lead at the break 33-25. Penny Taylor scored eight of her 13 points before halftime for Cleveland.
Overall, the Sting outscored Cleveland 22-9 in points off turnovers.
