The West's Michelle Snow attempts to dunk in the closing seconds of the WNBA All-Star basketball game as the East's Deanna Nolan (left) of the Detroit Shock, Tangela Smith of the Charlotte Sting, Cheryl Ford of Detroit and Tamika Whitmore of the Indiana Fever watch. Snow missed this attempt, but she was successful later on a reverse dunk. The dunk didn't help the West, which lost 98-82.
NEW YORK – The East’s improbable big lead turned the WNBA All-Star game into a dunking contest.
Diana Taurasi missed a dunk in the final seconds for the West, and Michelle Snow needed two attempts before her successful reverse dunk.
That’s pretty much the way it went for the West, which lost to the East for the first time in seven All-Star games 98-82 Wednesday at Madison Square Garden.
The East took a nine-point lead into the half and extended it to 25 points by the end of the third quarter.
Connecticut’s four All-Stars, including MVP Katie Douglas, combined for 39 points while the West struggled to try to keep up.
“Defense, offense, rebounding, shooting, running and jumping, it was a little bit of everything,” Taurasi said. “Sometimes things don’t work out as you planned. They had it tonight, they played really well. Hats off to them.”
Snow’s dunk was her first as a pro, and the second in an All-Star game. Lisa Leslie threw one down at last year’s event. Deanna Nolan of the East missed a dunk at the buzzer.
The West starters included veterans Sheryl Swoopes, Lauren Jackson, Yolanda Griffith, Dawn Staley and Sue Bird.
But they couldn’t keep up with the pace, the outside shooting of Douglas (16 points) and Katie Smith (14), who combined for six 3-pointers, and the intimidating presence of 7-foot-2 Margo Dydek.
“We kind of knew the East was going to come out and play really hard,” said Swoopes, who had six points and four assists. “I think they came out very serious and wanted to win. They got tired of the fact that everybody kept talking about that the West has won all of them. I think it’s good for the game that the East won.”
Leslie said the West didn’t shoot well enough at 36 percent, plus they got outscored 44-30 in the paint.
“We shot terrible,” said Leslie, who had nine points. “We settled for a lot of outside shots.”
Seimone Augustus, the national player of the year out of LSU, was the only West player in double figures with 16 points.
Dydek had nine rebounds and four blocks, swatting away a shot by Cappie Pondexter near the end of the game. She smiled and waved her finger at the rookie after the block.
“I’m not a show player,” Dydek said. “It was just trash talking before the game about blocking shots and shooting over somebody. I just told her that she’s not supposed to come here.”