Poor first half is too much for Orlando to overcome

By ANTONYA ENGLISH

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 9, 2000

ORLANDO -- Carolyn Peck is a proponent of the idea that no matter what happens in a game, the Miracle will not make excuses.

Fine.

But Thursday night, the Miracle should have been making apologies.

Shooting a dismal 6-of-27 from the field in the first half, Orlando had its worst first-half offensive production in its two-season history and never recovered, losing 71-57 to the Minnesota Lynx in front of 5,731 at the T.D. Waterhouse Centre.

"I want to thank our crowd for staying with us because the first half might have been the ugliest way we've performed," Peck said.

It was the second loss in two days for the Miracle, but Peck managed to find some positive in the outcome: the second half.

Orlando committed 11 turnovers in the first half, but 14 for the game, allowed four offensive rebounds in the first half, but nine for the game and outscored the Lynx by 10 in the second half. In its only strong run, the Miracle scored 17 in the final four minutes.

"We played hard and never quit," Peck said. "We went to our bench in the second half and played 94 feet of solid defense, which was promising. We just dug ourselves too deep a hole early."

And deep it was.

Orlando trailed 41-17 at halftime and was lucky to be that close.

After Tiffany Wait hit a three-pointer with 7:37 left in the first to give Orlando 13 points, the Miracle went scoreless for almost six minutes before center Taj McWilliams scored on a putback.

The Miracle was 1-of-8 from three-point range in the half and 4-of-10 from the free-throw line.

The Miracle struggled from the opening tip. Its offense seemed out of synch and couldn't get the ball inside to post players. With tough defense from the Lynx, the Miracle struggled to get players open and when it did, the shots didn't fall. It missed open layups and shots often didn't even hit the rim.

Meanwhile Minnesota was on fire, shooting 47 percent from the field and hitting five three-pointers in the first half. Three Lynx players scored all but three points in the first half.

Rookie guard Betty Lennox scored 17 of her game-high 24, Shanele Stires scored seven and Katie Smith scored 14 of her 23. Smith eventually hit 5 of 9 three-pointers.

Orlando's top shooters, Shannon Johnson, Nykesha Sales and Adrienne Johnson, entered averaging a combined 46 points, but were 1-for-12 in the first half, 4-for-25 in the game. Johnson didn't hit her first basket until 3:58 left in the game.

"It was frustrating," Adrienne Johnson said. "I don't know if (Wednesday's 83-79 overtime loss to Cleveland) was carrying over. We were hoping it wouldn't. We had every intention to come out strong and get off to a good start and we didn't." Sales played just 13 minutes Thursday night after spraining an ankle five minutes into the game.

McWilliams led Miracle scorers with 18 and had nine rebounds.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.

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