Rockers’ Win Streak Ends

Gordana Grubin, a former Spark starter in 1999, scored a career-high 23 points as the Indiana Fever beat Cleveland, 67-63, Friday night, snapping the Rockers’ 16-game home winning streak.

Cleveland had shared the WNBA record for consecutive home victories with the Sparks.

Indiana’s reserves outscored Cleveland’s reserves, 46-6, as the Rockers lost at the Gund Arena for the first time since July 20, 2000. Cleveland (18-6) also had its seven-game overall winning streak snapped.

The Rockers charged to a 21-9 lead before a crowd of 9,981, but Indiana rallied behind its reserves.

“This is probably a good time to lose because we still have about seven or eight games left in our season, so maybe its a wake-up call for us,” said Rushia Brown, who led Cleveland with 20 points. “We needed to know that you can’t take anybody lightly.”

Indiana (8-16) outscored the Rockers, 18-6, on three-point shots and scored 22 points off 18 Cleveland turnovers. Grubin made eight of 14 shots, including two of five from three-point range.

Sacramento 85, Portland 62--Kedra Holland-Corn scored 17 points and Yolanda Griffith added 16 for the Monarchs (14-10) before 7,571 at Sacramento.

Edna Campbell finished with 15 points and Tangela Smith had 13 points, eight rebounds and four blocks for Sacramento, which made seven of its 13 three-point attempts.

Tamicha Jackson scored 12 points, and Sophia Witherspoon added nine for the Fire (11-12).

Miami 71, Orlando 63--Sandy Brondello scored 23 points as the Sol rallied from an early 10-point deficit to win in overtime before 9,052 at Miami.

Sheri Sam added 20 points and eight rebounds for the Sol (14-10). Elena Baranova had a season-high seven assists, and Debbie Black finished with five steals.

Shannon Johnson scored 14 points for Orlando (9-14).

Miami, 2-4 in overtime games, outscored Orlando, 14-6, in the extra period.

Washington 62, Minnesota 60--Chamique Holdsclaw scored on a layup with 4.2 seconds remaining to lead the Mystics before 8,979 at Minneapolis.

Holdsclaw had 22 points and 12 rebounds for Washington (7-16), which won for the second time in nine games.

Katie Smith scored 22 points for Minnesota (7-15), which has lost 10 of 12 games.

Phoenix 56, Seattle 54--Jennifer Gillom scored with 5.2 seconds left as the Mercury earned a franchise-record fifth consecutive victory before 5,278 at Seattle.

Maria Stepanova had 11 points and nine rebounds for Phoenix (11-12). Semeka Randall led the Storm (9-16) with 19 points.