Thompson-Less Comets Top Mystics

Holdsclaw Leads Washington With 20 Points in Loss

The Houston Comets are starting to come together without injured star forward Tina Thompson.

Kedra Holland-Corn scored a season-high 21 points and Sheryl Swoopes added 16 to lift the Comets to a 72-67 victory over the visiting Washington Mystics yesterday for their second win in five days.

Houston (8-7) had lost three of four, including back-to-back games June 18 and 19 to Seattle and Minnesota. Thompson is out with an ankle injury.

Chamique Holdsclaw scored a game-high 20 points for Washington (5-7), which lost for the second time in three games.

Stacey Dales-Schuman added 12 points for the Mystics, Chasity Melvin had 11 and Alana Beard 10.

After Washington took a 53-50 lead on a three-point play by Melvin with 7 minutes 19 seconds left, the Comets responded with a 12-3 run to take a 62-56 lead with 4:26 to go.

Sheila Lambert, who finished with 11 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists, scored six points during the run; Swoopes added four.

"I think for the most part, coming into this game we felt like we had to win," Holland-Corn said. "This team has been going through a lot of adversity as of late, but I think we are starting to grow.

"The most important thing for this team was to get a win. No matter how far behind we got, we felt like we were still in it and could come back."

Despite turning the ball over 15 times and shooting just 35 percent from the field in the first half, the Comets led 28-27 at the break. Holland-Corn led Houston with 11 points and scored the Comets' first nine points, all on three-pointers.

Holdsclaw scored 12 first-half points for Washington, which used a 17-4 run to take a 19-13 lead. But the Comets responded with an 11-2 run to lead 24-21.

The Mystics outscored the Comets 12-6 in the first 6:04 of the second half behind six points by Dales-Schuman, but did not hold the lead as the Comets tied the game with four straight points in the next 40 seconds.

"The Comets have a lot of very good players and that is the mark of a good team," Holdsclaw said. "Take Sheila Lambert, for example. She got 11 rebounds today. She's not supposed to get 11 rebounds. That is a no-no and that came back to haunt us."

Swoopes, who led the Comets in scoring in the previous four games, made just 4 of 16 shots. She compensated for her inconsistency by making 8 of 9 free throw attempts.