Los Angeles, CA – Los Angeles Sparks had much to celebrate this weekend beginning with Friday’s Juneteenth holiday, then Saturday kicked off a Sparks’ Legends reunion while hosting a youth clinic after visiting the team’s practice, culminated with a surprise victory over New York Liberty, 98-97 by a Nneka Ogumike’s buzzer beater three-pointer swishing thru the net, giving her teammate Rae Burrell a special birthday memory to share on this Father’s Day with her dad as well as all girl dads or dads period.
“My dad, he was here tonight, Don Roberts, and holds a special place in my heart,” Sparks Head Coach Lynne Roberts said to fi360News at the postgame presser. “He’s the guy who has always held me to a high standard and would tell me good job, but be just as quick to slap me on the ass and say, “Get going.” And that’s the power of a dad…I want to say to all you dads out here, happy Father’s Day, and you know, the world’s a better place because of the dads in the world.”
As the 30th anniversary game started, there was a brief reenactment of the WNBA’s inaugural game jump ball between Sparks Legend Lisa Leslie and Liberty’s Kym Hampton. This seemed to be a prelude of history repeating itself, as the Liberty won that game 30 years ago by 10 and started this game off in the first quarter up by 10 after closing the period on a 13-4 run, 28-18 advantage New York.
“It’s humbling for sure. I do remember obviously when the league started, I was in Seattle at the time they had the ABL and so I would go to those games,” Coach Roberts said. “I just thought it was the coolest thing, and you know when I started my coaching journey, I didn’t picture myself here right now. I was just trying to win the next game, and just like the process of getting here, it’s the same thing just day by day, stack days.”
Los Angeles was able to stack some defensive stops in the second quarter holding New York to 33% from behind the arc as they were able to shoot three percent better for the first half. Ogumike intercepted a pass from Sabrina Ionescu to go all the way and cut the lead to six, 36-30 around the 6:00 mark in the second quarter. It appeared that the momentum was about to favor Sparks as they came within five-point deficit until Jonquel Jones and Satou Sabally heated up to finish the half with 11 and 10, respectively, while their team entered halftime up 55-43, Liberty advantage.
“Yesterday, one of them [Sparks legends] said, “Enjoy the moment.” This franchise has a lot of legacy. So, it comes with a level of pressure,” Erica Wheeler said. They [Sparks legend] said, “No pressure, but at the end of the day, enjoy it and be blessed to be in Hollywood and with the Sparks because there’s a lot of history here that you know that we need to continue to build.” So when they said that I was like you know what that’s all right.”
Then in the second half, the Sparks flipped a switch, a script and score to stun Liberty with an erasure of a 17-point deficit that came down to the final buzzer of the game. The Sparks went on a 16-5 run starting in the fourth including a momentum boost triple from Wheeler midway in the period to tie the game, 84-84. Ogumike caught a breakaway pass from Kelsey Plum around the 4:30 mark to give Sparks their first lead since the first quarter, 86-85 Sparks advantage.
Subsequently, Ogumike rallied off nine points of her game high 24 points to help keep her team in the game followed by some clutch free throws made by Burell. After losing their final timeout to an unsuccessful challenge, Sparks advanced the ball after Breanna Stewart made one of two free throws. Wheeler drove the lane and kicked out to Ogumike as time wound down, to knock down an open three pointer at the end of regulation, stamping her own legacy with her fourth game winner of her career.
“Everyone in our locker room wouldn’t have picked another person to hit that shot. [With] what [Nneka Ogwumike]’s done for the league, she’s one of one, Coach Roberts said. “And on a night like tonight, where we are honoring the legacy of not only the Sparks, but of the league. What Nneka has done for the league, especially recently with getting that new CBA done, it’s powerful when you think about it…[Sports] brings out these moments and you couldn’t have scripted it any better.”
Next up, the Sparks hit the road to travel up northeast to face the Toronto Tempo at the Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto, Canada on Thursday, June 25 at 4 p.m. PT.
