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Monarchs rally for 74-73 win over Sun

May 09, 2006

It started ugly, every bit a sloppy exhibition game.
But the Connecticut Sun and Sacramento Monarchs put together a dazzling final five minutes in The Pit Tuesday night.
The Monarchs mounted a 12-4 run to take their first lead of the with 34 seconds left in the pre-season game designed to help the WNBA broaden its fan base and allow rookies fight for roster spots to be decided by Saturday.
Former Utah standout Kim Smith played a major role in the rally, hitting a 3-pointer that started the run, made a key steal and dished out one assist.
"I can't believe I've finally got two wins in The Pit," Smith said, referring to an NCAA regional win and Tuesday's victory. Her Utes never beat the Lobos in Albuquerque during her tenure.
Smith finished with 12 points, four rebounds, two assists and one steal in 24 minutes.
Hamchetou Maiga-Ba led the Monarchs with 16 points, while Yolanda Griffith added 10 points.
The Sun's Nykesha Sales led all scorers with 19 points, and teammate Asjha Jones chipped in 14 points.
The game opened on a positive note for Smith and Cisti Greenwalt, a Clovis standout and Texas Tech grad. The duo have logged college careers as Pit villains but got loud cheers from a friendly announced crowd of 6,392 that Monarchs coach John Whisenant said treated his team like Lobos.
"It was really nice," Greenwalt said. "It's great to be accepted again."
Check out Wednesday's Tribune for more coverage.

Posted by ilimon at 10:37 PM |

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Posted by: Gary Stepic | May 10, 2006 10:18 AM

What made the game extra fun was watching the Monarch players on the bench. They were having fun and really showed that they wanted the win even if it was an exhibition game.

I am really happy for Coach Whiz and his family. The Monarchs are my adopted WNBA team and if Kim makes the team, and judging from last night I think she has a very good shot at it, then I will like them all the more.

Funny how that works, for four years we are hoping she flops because we wanted to beat her team and finish ahead of Utah in the standings. But since she was in our conference, and seemed like a classy kid from all accounts, now we (I anyway) want to see her do well in the WNBA,

And of course indirectly this helps us because it makes our conference look good. But I really do hope she does well with the Monarchs and I hope the same for Cisti.

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