Results tagged “basketball”

Your Seattle Storm clinched a spot in next month's WNBA playoffs with a home win over Connecticut last night. If the playoffs started today, the Storm would be the Western Conference's #2-seed and face their longtime nemeses, the Los Angeles Sparks. The Storm have six regular season games left, including a home game Saturday vs. Atlanta. Tickets!

The M's win 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth on Ichiro's two-out walk-off single -- Ich's 148th hit of the season, which puts him exactly at the pace of his record-setting 262-hit season in 2004. Washburn allowed just 1 run in 7 IP in what may have been his last start as a Mariner, but didn't get the win due to a bullpen collapse. M's 52-48, 7.5 GB. Box score. Next game Weds. vs. TOR, 1:40 p.m.; Rowland-Smith vs. Halladay.

In every non-playoffs sports season, you can date the moment when your team's hopes collapsed. For the last place 2008 Mariners, it was approximately mid-April. This year's Mariners lasted far longer in the playoff hunt. Nevertheless, July 24-26 was their undoing.

All we missed was perhaps the most dramatic local sports event of the year, a three-overtime classic that included a team-record seven three pointers from Sue Bird, an ejection for Lauren Jackson, and twelve lead changes.

Swin Cash led the team in scoring for the third straight game, getting 18 points as the Storm jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. Lauren Jackson made her impact on the defensive end, getting four blocks. Props also to Tanisha Wright, who had 7 assists. Storm 8-4, 2nd place, .5 GB. Box score. Next game Sunday vs. Chicago, 6 p.m.

Phew! What a day!

As we write this, your Storm are taking on the San Antonio Silver Stars, in a special matinee game. (Go Storm!) But if you're thinking, "Aw, hell, there goes my chance to watch professional sports tonight"...well, first of all, no need to curse. Do you talk to your mother with that mouth? Second of all, no, it's not your only chance. The Gods of Professional Sports Scheduling (Ballimus and Fanina) offer three further opportunities tonight along the I-5 corridor.

No doubting it: The Seattle Mariners are legitimate pennant contenders. The Seattle Mariners are legitimate pennant contenders. THE SEATTLE MARINERS ARE LEGITIMATE PENNANT CONTENDERS!!! Sorry, we like writing that so much we had to do it thrice.

The Storm usually hold Cappie Pondexter in check, but not tonight as she nearly had a triple-double. They had issues with the refs, too, as LJ and Swin Cash both got technical fouls. Once again, the Storm got next to no production from their bench, which managed just 8 points. All starters finished in double figures. Storm 6-4, 1 GB. Box score. Next game Tues. vs. San Antonio at KeyArena, Noon.

M's Serve Baseball's Best Team; Lose Beltre: The Mariners started their road trip with a surprising 2-1 series win over the Dodgers, who have baseball's best record. The highlight was Felix Hernandez's nine-K performance on Saturday night, with homers by Griffey and Branyan providing the offense. Bad news came that night as well: Adrian Beltre will miss 6-8 weeks, he's getting surgery to remove painful bone spurs in his shoulder.

The Storm tie Phoenix atop the Western Conference in an entertaining, fast-paced game reminiscent of last year's Pac-10 men's UW/Arizona battles. The Storm jumped ahead early behind Swin Cash's ten first quarter points, but the Mercury came back to grab the lead in the second half. Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson took over in the fourth, with Bird scoring 7 unanswered to open the quarter, and Jackson hitting a game-clinching three. Storm 5-2, T1st. Box score. Next game Friday vs. LA Sparks.

University of Washington senior-to-be Quincy Pondexter is one of 12 top collegiate basketball players who'll make up Team USA in the World University Games. The 6'-6" Pondexter, who blossomed into the Huskies' best all-around player last season, joins Purdue's Robbie Hummel and Mississippi State's Jarvis Varnado on the team. The 26-team basketball portion of the World University Games in Belgrade will run July 2-11.

Another slow start by the Storm costs them a game against an inferior team. After falling behind 15-1, Seattle rallied to take the lead in the 4th, but coughed it up late. The Storm missed a ton of easy buckets, shooting only 36%. Tanisha Wright continues to confound; after a career night on Friday, she went 1-7 and fouled out today. Box score. Next game Friday vs. Minnesota, it's Dads & Daughters night. Tickets from $15-160.

Lauren Jackson was her usual brilliant self, recording a double-double; but how about Tanisha Wright! The much-maligned fifth-year guard scored 17 points on 9 shots, and had 7 assists to just 1 turnover. Plus she held Candace Wiggins to just 7 pts. Storm 3-1, T1st. Box score. Next game Sunday @ Chicago.

Trying something new this week--a little preview of the weekend in sports action, to help you not get sucked into brunch when there's a game to watch. (Or, allow you to get sucked into brunch so you can beg off later to watch a game.)

While Seattle's Garfield High School Jazz Band did score a stirring victory in the national Essentially Ellington jazz competition earlier this month they were not so lucky on the basketball court. But they do have a pretty cool story to impress next fall's dormmates with: They played basketball against Wynton Marsalis.

How do you lose a game when you shoot 49%? You turn the ball over 20 times. Playing three games in four days, plus a long flight to Indianapolis = icky hoops. Note: Former Storm Yolanda Griffith, now with Indiana, suffered what appeared to be a serious knee injury in the first half. Box score. Next game Fri. @ Minnesota.

By establishing herself as an offensive threat, Bird's forcing teams to guard her and opening up the floor for her teammates. As a result, she leads the league in assists with 16 in two games.

Quite an exciting day in professional sports that Seattle doesn't have anymore: Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals is tonight at 5 p.m. on the Versus Network. Detroit leads Pittsburgh 2-1 in the series. Game 1 of the NBA Finals is tonight at 6 p.m. on ABC. It's Orlando vs. the L.A. Lakers.

There is no doubt that the high water mark of Seattle’s professional sports history is the 1979 NBA Championship won by our dear, departed Seattle SuperSonics. It was 30 years ago today that DJ, Gus, JJ, Jack, Downtown Freddy Brown, and crew dispatched the Washington Bullets in the fifth and deciding game.

Two Franklin High grads--Jason Terry of the Dallas Mavericks and Aaron Brooks of the Houston Rockets--have emerged as two of the most critical players in the NBA playoffs.

Local hero Brandon Roy and his Blazers face a must-win Game 6 in Houston tonight; the game's at 6:30 p.m. on TNT. Rockets' forward and eccentric Ron Artest, who'll be guarding Roy much of the game, paid him an incredible compliment in a slightly weird interview with TNT, calling Roy "the best player I've ever played against." The interviewer follows-up: "Better than Kobe? Better than LeBron?" Artest: "The best I've ever played against."

If Tony Bennett leaves his heart in Pullman, it'll be because an enraged Coug fan spotted him, carved it out, and stuck it on a wall as a warning. WSU basketball coach Bennett, the only man to take the perennially terrible Cougars to the NCAA tournament's Sweet 16, is now head coach at the University of Virginia. Writes the Spokane Spokesman-Review's Vince Grippi: "The players are shocked, the administration is shocked, the assistant coaches are shocked." Writes Jeff Nusser of CougCenter: "All that stuff about Tony loving Pullman and wanting to build something special? About asking the administration for seven years? Apparently, it was all a bunch of s***."

Welcome to the NCAA Tournament, the largest collective gambling enterprise this side of Wall Street.

Oh, to live in a state like Kansas, where legislators have their priorities straight.

Our Staples Center Bureau chief, Ryan, was not amused with the Huskies 75-65 loss to Arizona State on Friday night.

MvB is going to get his pound of opening night hors d'oeuvres after seeing the The Merchant of Venice at the Seattle Shakespeare Company tonight. Saturday, if rainy, may involve an all-day LOTR-athon at a friend's in LQA.

Following the Huskies win on Saturday, we declared that all we wanted next was an injury free Pac 10 Tournament.

The state 4A boys basketball tournament is down to the semifinals, and if you had Todd Beamer High going all the way, I'm sorry but you aren't going to win your pool.