Victory at Pond Has a Homey Feel for the StingRays

The Anaheim StingRays?

Folks at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim were trying that out Saturday evening, seeing how it rolled off the tongue. The Long Beach StingRays, before an announced crowd of 6,006 and driven by Yolanda Griffith down the stretch, beat the New England Blizzard, 70-64.

The victory, not secured until the final seconds, moved Long Beach (18-12) to within percentage points of Western Conference leader Portland (19-12).

Attendance, however, was also a major topic afterward. StingRay General Manager Bill McGillis said his team’s visit to Anaheim had had its rewards.

“The crowd was great. . . . I think we expanded our fan base tonight,” he said.

“We’re still committed to Long Beach as our home. I don’t expect to play here again this season, but I can’t rule it out. We don’t have the playoff schedule yet, and it’s possible there could be some playoff conflicts at the Pyramid.”

The StingRays have five games left at the 4,200-seat Long Beach State facility. At the 16,696-seat Pond, the StingRays, for the first time, heard big-crowd home-court cheers.

“The crowd was real, real nice,” said Griffith, who brought the crowd to its feet twice down the stretch with great offensive plays and finished with 20 points.

Long Beach led for most of the game, including 52-42 after three quarters. But with 3:35 left, point guard Jennifer Rizzotti drove hard for a layup and made a free throw as New England (15-16) pulled to within 58-57.

Then Griffith went to work.

She got a free throw, then an athletic put-back at 3:07--bringing the crowd to its feet-- made a layup on an assist by Andrea Nagy and added another free throw.

When Beverly Williams (14 points) scored on a three-on-one fastbreak at 2:03 for a 66-59 lead, New England coach K.C. Jones called for a timeout, and the crowd was up again.

The Blizzard’s Carolyn Jones, the ABL’s leading scorer a year ago, was four for four from the line in the last minute, bringing New England to 66-63, but Griffith got a put-back after Williams missed a free throw with 28 seconds left, and that virtually was the game.

For Long Beach Coach Maura McHugh, it was in stark contrast to the 78-61 beating her team absorbed in Hartford on Nov. 4.

“That was the last day of a four-game eastern road trip--we were zombies that night,” she said.

“I thought Bev [Williams] did a great job on Jones [20 points] tonight, and we shot free throws well in the third quarter [10 in a row at one point].”

Venus Lacy had a game-high 12 rebounds and Griffith had 11, prompting Rizzotti to say afterward: “Long Beach has improved a lot--they have great players in the post and when they’re playing well, it’s tough.”

Griffith said the team has set a goal--winning out to the All-Star break, which means prevailing at Seattle today and at San Jose on Wednesday.

“That’s our goal, to win out and take over first place,” she said.