PHOENIX (AP) -- The Phoenix Mercury have struggled with their
shooting all season. A game against the league-worst Charlotte
Sting was just what they needed to turn things around.
Diana Taurasi scored 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting and had eight
assists, and Anna DeForge added 19 points to lead Phoenix to a
82-62 victory Wednesday night over Charlotte.
Jia Perkins scored a career-high 21 points for the Sting, who
have lost five of their last six and all eight road games this
season. Charlotte (3-14) hasn't won away from home in 10 games,
since Sept. 8, 2004, at Minneapolis.
It was a season high in scoring and field-goal percentage (58.2
percent, 32-for-55) for the Mercury, who came into the game
shooting 38.4 percent from the field.
"It's going to be tough to beat any team that shoots 58
percent, let alone us," DeForge said of the second-best shooting
night in franchise history. "I think that even our aggressiveness
on the boards, getting to the free throw line, I think you are
seeing a really different team from even two or three weeks ago."
Phoenix (6-11) lost five in a row before winning on back-to-back
nights before the All-Star break.
"I think the good thing is we kept making the extra pass,"
said Penny Taylor, who added 17 points for the Mercury. "Some
people were passing up shots to get an easy shot. When you are
doing that, you are playing that sort of team basketball, you'll
get a lot of shots from under the basket and it gives you more
confidence to take the outside shots."
Tangela Smith added 17 points and Alison Feaster 15 for the
Sting, which didn't get a basket from anyone other its top three
scorers for the first 30 minutes of the game.
"Making sure we dominate the boards -- that allows us to get
high percentage shots by igniting our running game," Phoenix coach
Carrie Graf said. "That's who we are, we like to get out there and
run."
The Mercury ended the first half on an 8-3 run and had an 8-2
spurt early in the second half to pull away.
"We let them get control of the whole game," Smith said. "We
didn't really show up to play. That run they had towards the end of
the first half carried over into the second half."
Outside of the top three scorers, Charlotte was 4-for-20 from
the field. The team was 26 of 65 overall.
Maria Stepanova, in her fourth game with the Mercury after a
four-year absence from the league, added nine points, seven
rebounds and four blocked shots.
"When she (Stepanova) gets two early blocks in the game,
suddenly, people driving in there, they post up to take different
looks and I think just her 6-8 presence gives us a massive boost on
that end and on the glass," Graf said. "Now, they are not tipping
it around against a 6-foot-2 post but they are trying to tip it
around a 6-foot-8."
Taurasi made both of her 3-point attempts and didn't play the
last nine minutes of the game after Phoenix opened up a 15-point
lead.