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By Clay Kallam
Publisher
It's hard to find an edge to exploit.
To start with, the Long Beach StingRays are an expansion team, and the Columbus Quest are the best professional team in the world -- not to mention the defending ABL champions.
Next up is the depressing fact that the StingRays were blitzed by Columbus in all four meetings, losing by average margin of 22.5 points. Even worse, Long Beach outscored the Quest in just one quarter out of the 16 and tied them only once.
In addition, the StingRays have had five playoff games, the most in the ABL. Columbus has had just two, after a bye in the first round, and is nothing if not well-rested.
And finally, the league's best rebounding team, Long Beach, was outrebounded by one of the league's smallest teams, Columbus, in the four-game set, as well averaging 20.8 turnover per game.
About the only thing Maura McHugh and company can look to with any hope is the fact that the vagaries of the arena availability have given Long Beach the first two games at the Pyramid, rather than in the death trap that is Battelle Hall in Columbus. The Quest are 22-1 there this year, with the only loss coming in the first game of the season.
Basically, then, the StingRay plan is this: Win both games at home and then steal one in Columbus to claim the title. The question remains, though, as to precisely how Long Beach will execute that plan, given the fact that previous plans have not exactly worked out as StingRay fans had hoped.
Consider that four of the five Long Beach starters scored fewer points against Columbus than they did against everyone else. Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil, for example, averaged 5.8 points and 2.0 rebounds vs. the Quest and 11.9 and 3.6 overall. Venus Lacy dropped from 10.2 points and 6.5 rebounds to 5.0 and 4.7, respectively. And even the multitalented Yolanda Griffith struggled against the Columbus frontcourt of Andrea Lloyd and Valerie Still, checking in with just 11.0 points, vs. 18.8.
The only exception was point guard Andrea Nagy, who actually boosted her scoring from 7.6 to 10.5 -- but her assists plummetted from 6.2 to 3.0 and her turnovers jumped from 2.8 to 3.4.
Neisha Johnson, who came to Long Beach late in the season, played just one game against Columbus, and managed zero points in 23 minutes. Cass Bauer, the main frontcourt reserve (who played for the Quest last year), didn't do much either, so it's clear Long Beach has to come up with something new and different if an upset is in the offing.
There are those who say that statistics don't tell the whole story, and though Long Beach fans have to hope they're right, there's really not many intangibles for them to lean on either. Columbus has great chemistry, very good talent and outstanding coaching.
Yes, the StingRays have great talent up front too, but so far Lacy and Davis-Wrightsil have been unable to shake the sticky Columbus defense. Williams and Nagy have had better luck against Shannon Johnson, Tonya Edwards and Sonja Tate in the backcourt, but Johnson's tenacious defense and great quickness have kept Nagy from delivering the ball to the big people on the block.
And as if that weren't enough, Long Beach has a serious matchup problem against Katie Smith, who is just too quick and athletic for Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil. The only way to even that up is for Davis-Wrightsil to get off offensively, which she hasn't done so far.
It would be nice to be able to conclude with some ray of hope for the expansion StingRays, but about the only thing I can come up with is that no one expected them to win the West, so maybe they'll defy the odds again and beat Columbus. Exactly how they'll do that, barring an injury, is unfortunately pretty hard to figure out.
From here, it looks like it will be a moral victory if Long Beach can extend the series to five games -- and even avoiding a sweep would probably be considered an achievement worth praising.
But beating Columbus? Out of the Quest-ion.
3/4/98
