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Saturday, Jun. 17 7:00pm ET
Miami staves off late Rockers rally | |||||
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BOX SCORE
MIAMI (Ticker) -- Sheri Sam scored a season-high 21 points and Marlies Askamp added 10 as the expansion Miami Sol nearly blew a 12-point lead but held on for a 55-48 triumph over the Cleveland Rockers. Miami held a seemingly insurmountable 51-39 cushion with 6:42 left, but Cleveland scored the next nine points to pull within three. Merlakia Jones scored four points and Chasity Melvin's two free throws with 4:12 remaining capped the spurt, but was also the Rockers final points of the game. The Sol had a 51-48 lead when rookie Kristen Rasmussen missed a jumper and Eva Nemcova grabbed the rebound for the Rockers with 35 seconds left. After fighting to get open, Nemcova missed a 3-pointer and Katrina Colleton hauled in the rebound before being fouled. She made both free throws with 11 seconds left and Sam added a steal and layup for the final margin. "(Sam) did not have a good game in Houston, so she came out tonight and played big," Sol coach Ron Rothstein said. "She can do some things out there. She's alive, she runs well and she's not afraid to shoot the ball." "(Sam) was hot, so we ran a lot of plays for her and she came through," Colleton added. "She showed her offensive skills tonight more than any other game." Two nights after a 77-53 loss at the hands of the champion Houston Comets, the Sol rebounded for their second victory in three games. Miami has won two in a row at home after losing its first three. Sam (7-of-15) and Askamp combined to shoot 11-of-25 from the floor, but the rest of the Sol was just 9-of-25. Sam drilled 4-of-7 3-pointers, helping Miami go 6-of-11 from beyond the arc. "It's obvious I'm struggling on the offensive side," Askamp said. "I was concentrating on getting rebounds and my offensive play. Tonight when I hit my first shot, that was all I needed, and it helped." Melvin scored 11 points and Suzie McConnell-Serio added 10 for the Rockers, who have dropped two in a row following a season-best five-game winning streak. One night after shooting 61 percent in a loss to Detroit, Cleveland hit at only 38 percent and was 3-of-11 from 3-point range. "We didn't shoot the ball very well at all," McConnell-Serio said. "You have to credit their defense. They moved the ball well and shot the ball well. They really had balance inside and out, and I was really impressed with them." Only six players scored for Cleveland. Nemcova had nine points on 4-of-17 shooting, Vicki Hall added eight and No. 1 overall pick Ann Wauters chipped in six. "We let them get on some spurts and they hurt us during transition," Rockers coach Dan Hughes said. "It wasn't a well-played game, but I thought we fought. It was good to see us come back." It was a sloppy contest as both teams committed 19 turnovers, but the Rockers scored 22 points off of Miami miscues, while the Sol managed 12. Cleveland also committed 19 turnovers on Friday against Detroit. | ALSO SEE WNBA Scoreboard Smith: Rockers rolling with strong start
Rockers trade Edwards to Seattle for Bjedov's rights
RECAPS Minnesota 69 Phoenix 62
Miami 55
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