After six straight losses, the San Antonio Silver Stars finally came away with a victory. Under their interim head coach Shell Dailey, the Silver Stars came from behind to post a 64-55 win over the Cleveland Rockers at SBC Center on Sunday night.
The Rockers jumped out to a 10-0 start and 8,628 faithful thought, "Here we go, again." But San Antonio regrouped at half-time to dominate Cleveland in the second half. Capitalizing on Rockers' turnovers, sticking to their man-to-man defense and shooting 57.7% in the final twenty minutes, San Antonio left the court elated with the victory.
"We were going to hang in there together, no matter what," Dailey said. "We were going to continue to believe in each other."
Down 29-23, the Silver Stars came back out of the lockerroom with a new sense of renewal. Adrienne Goodson led the Silver Stars --12 of her 14 points came in the second half. Goodson hit 6-of-7 shots from the field in the second stanza and played relentless defense, sparking a 15-1 San Antonio run.
"We came in with a lot energy and concentrated on our own game. We had a game plan," said Goodson, who had six offensive boards.
"We didn't worry too much about what Cleveland was going to do. We knew exactly how we were going to play defense and how to play our pick and rolls. We just stuck to it."
It was hometown favorite, reserve guard Tai Dillard who put the Silver Stars up for good when she hit a jumper with 6:33 left in the contest. Dillard also nailed a key three-pointer and finished the game with five points, three assists and two steals in 11 minutes.
Penny Thomas' 14 points led the Rockers, who hit only two field goals in final ten minutes of the game. Cleveland, who shot 44.4% in the first half, hit only 10-of-37 from the field in the second.
The Silver Stars (7-16) celebrated as they left the court, but know it's going to be a hard fight to get back to the playoffs.
"We needed to win. We had to start somewhere," said center Margo Dydek. "We are very happy, but we have a long way to go."
Marie Ferdinand had 12 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals for the Silver Stars. Center Margo Dydek scored seven points, pulled down nine rebounds and dished four assists. Reserve Sylvia Crawley tallied her 1,000th career point.
The Silver Stars take on the first place Los Angeles Sparks in Los Angeles on Wednesday afternoon.
