Los Angeles, CA- The Los Angeles Sparks defense locked down the San Antonio Stars in the fourth quarter with 75-55 victory at Staples Center.
The defense held the Stars to 7 points for the whole team in fourth quarter after a stale third quarter.
The tone was set midway through the first quarter by the Sparks and Chelsea Gray who had the green light to shoot and score. She led her team with 17 points in first half.
Gray was in starting line with a three guard set of Alana Beard, and Odyssey Sims 8 points. They played well on both ends of the court for the Sparks, when the Stars controlled Nneka Ogwumike in first half.
“We were playing inside out tonight through Candace and Nneka,” said Gray, “I just knocked them down.(baskets)”
The Sparks knew going into tonight’s game that Stars would give them a run if they didn’t execute for four quarters. So three out of four was enough to stretch their first place in WNBA lead to 1.5 games.
Ogwumike lead the Sparks with 22 points, 14 rebounds and 4 assist in the game.
“I found a rhythm in the second half,” said Ogwumike
Now the Sparks have four more games in the regular season to keep pace and ensure that they are one of top two seeds for first round bye. The two teams that earn the bye will get four extra days to rest before starting their playoff run.
“One game, one day at a time,” said Ogwumike on how they approach these games.
Coach Brian Agler has this team playing well down the stretch.
“All wins are good this time of the year.” said Agler “Really impressed with how we played defense tonight.”
The Sparks travel to Phoenix on Thursday night for their last away game for the season.
