SAN ANTONIO — Cappie Pondexter scored 26 points — including two crucialfree throws with 2.1 seconds left — to lift the Phoenix Mercury to a 102-100victory over the San Antonio Silver Stars in Game 1 of the Western Conferencefinals Thursday night.

Phoenix led from the second quarter until the last seconds of the fourth.Shanna Crossley made three free throws with 15 seconds remaining after beingfouled by Diana Taurasi on a 3-point attempt to pull San Antonio to 100-97.

Taurasi then lost the ball out of bounds, and Becky Hammon hit a 3 for theSilver Stars to tie the game at 100 with 2.1 seconds left. However, Crossleyfouled Pondexter on the inbound play, and Pondexter hit both free throws.

Crossley’s 3-point attempt at the buzzer didn’t fall.

Phoenix, which won the season series 3-1, now returns home for Game 2 onSaturday and Game 3, if necessary, on Sunday.

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INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana’s Tamika Catchings and Detroit’s Cheryl Ford havetaken nearly identical paths to the Eastern Conference finals.

Catchings missed the last 13 games of the regular season after injuring herleft foot July 20 against the Shock. She returned for the playoffs and averaged19.7 points and 15.3 rebounds as the Fever beat the Connecticut Sun 2-1 in thefirst round.

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INDIANAPOLIS — Anna DeForge, not Tamika Catchings, was the Indiana Fever’stop scorer in their playoff series win over the Connecticut Sun.

In fact, DeForge leads the league this postseason. The shooting guardaveraged 25 points against the Sun, a big increase from her 8.7 points per gamein the regular season. She hopes to continue her success against Detroit whenthe Eastern Conference finals open Friday in Indianapolis.

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SAN ANTONIO — Despite a 3-1 season series advantage, Phoenix Mercury coachPaul Westhead isn’t relaxing as his team prepares for the Western Conferencefinals against San Antonio.

“We know that they are a dangerous team,” Westhead said. “I mean, we havesome good feelings, but they did beat us at home.”

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A look at WNBA’s conference finals series, which start Thursday:^EASTERN CONFERENCE=^No. 1 Detroit (24-10) vs. No. 2 Indiana (21-13)=

Season series: Tied 2-2, with each team winning once on the other’s court.

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PHOENIX — The Phoenix Mercury are a more confident team than when they lostto San Antonio last month.

The Mercury, 11-9 after losing at home to the Silver Stars on July 11,finished the season with 12 wins in their last 14 games.

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AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Swin Cash’s layup with 8.5 seconds remaining inovertime lifted the Detroit Shock to a 71-70 victory over the New York Libertyin the decisive Game 3 of their first round Eastern Conference series on Tuesdaynight.

Deanna Nolan scored 22 points and Cheryl Ford added 17 points and 10rebounds to help defending champion Detroit advance to the East finals againstIndiana. Game 1 is Friday night at Indianapolis.

After Cash’s tiebreaking basket, Janel McCarville had a chance to pull theLiberty even with 3.7 seconds left but missed her second free throw, and LoreeMoore couldn’t keep the rebound inbounds.

Catherine Kraayeveld had 16 points and rookie Tiffany Jackson scored 14 forNew York, which led by 10 points midway through the third quarter, and by fivepoints with 2 minutes left in overtime, but couldn’t hold either lead.

After cruising to a 73-51 victory in the opener at home, the Liberty fellshort in both games on the top-seeded Shock’s home court. New York rallied froma 17-point third-quarter deficit before losing 76-73 in Game 2.

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SAN ANTONIO — Vickie Johnson scored an easy layup on a pass from BeckyHammon with half a second remaining and the San Antonio Silver Stars beat theSacramento Monarchs 80-78 to win their Western Conference playoff series Mondaynight.

Although Sacramento overcame a 20-point deficit and took a lead with justmore than a minute remaining in the game, San Antonio won the best-of-3 seriesbehind a franchise playoff-record 26 points from Sophia Young.

Hammon added 22 points and seven assists while Johnson scored 14 and alsohad seven assists.

Nicole Powell led the comeback with 10 fourth-quarter points. She led theMonarchs with 20 points.

Kara Lawson added 12 while Rebekkah Brunson and Yolanda Griffith each scored10.

The Silver Stars will play the Phoenix Mercury on Thursday in the WesternConference finals. It’s a best-of-3 series that will begin in San Antonio beforemoving to Phoenix for a second and, if necessary, third game.

The Mercury swept Seattle in the first round.

The defeat ended the Monarchs’ string of two straight appearances in theWNBA finals. Sacramento won the championship in 2005 and fell to Detroit in fivegames last year.

INDIANAPOLIS — Tamika Catchings had 30 points and 13 rebounds, and theIndiana Fever made the biggest comeback in WNBA history to defeat theConnecticut Sun 93-88 in overtime and advance to the Eastern Conference finals.

The Fever overcame a 39-17, second-quarter deficit to win the series 2-1.The previous biggest deficit overcome was 21 points, by Minnesota in a 74-72 winon Aug. 28, 2003, against Los Angeles.

Katie Douglas led Connecticut with 27 points and Lindsay Whalen and AsjhaJones both added 21. The Sun won their first five games against the Fever thisseason, but lost the two that mattered most.

In overtime, Catchings hit a 3-pointer with 31 seconds left to give theFever an 89-86 lead. Douglas missed a 3-pointer, and Indiana rebounded with 15.1seconds left.

Tamika Whitmore made the first of two free throws with 14.4 seconds left tobump Indiana’s lead to 90-86.

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PHOENIX — Cappie Pondexter scored 25 points as the Phoenix Mercury blewa 22-point, second-half lead but recovered for a 95-89 win Sunday and a sweep ofthe Seattle Storm in the best-of-three WNBA Western Conference semifinals.

Diana Taurasi, who had 20 points and six assists, hit a 3-pointer and made afree throw in the final 2:30 after Seattle had tied it at 85 with 2:50 left. TheStorm trailed 60-38 with 8:21 left in the third.

Lauren Jackson scored 22 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, but played the last14 minutes with five fouls for Seattle.

Phoenix will play the winner of Monday’s Sacramento-San Antonio game on theroad Thursday night in the first game of the best-of-three Western Conferencefinals.

Penny Taylor added 18 points, five rebounds and five assists for theMercury, who had not been in the playoffs since 2000.

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