Storm 69, Sparks 67

LOS ANGELES (AP) Sandy Brondello made sure the Los Angeles Sparks' comeback fell short even if she did miss those two late free throws.

Brondello scored 21 points, including a 13-foot jumper to give Seattle a four-point lead with 10.9 seconds left and seal the Storm's 69-67 win over Los Angeles in Thursday night's only WNBA game.

Sue Bird scored 15 points and tied a career high with 12 assists.

``We were really aggressive both offensively and defensively,'' Bird said. ``We didn't give them anything easy when we were on defense. And when we were on offense, we really took it to them, ran our plays to perfection and got that early lead.''

The Storm led by 18 in the second half, and it almost didn't hold up.

Rookie Shaquala Williams cut the Storm's lead to 67-65, making a layup with 37 seconds left to cap a 9-0 run. After Brondello scored, Sophia Witherspoon made a layup with 4.1 seconds remaining.

She got the rebound after Brondello missed two free throws a second later, but the Sparks couldn't get a shot off before time expired.

``My concern is defense,'' Sparks coach Michael Cooper said. ``We have to get it done defensively. We had some lapses that put us in the hole early. We showed a lot of courage by digging ourselves out, but we can't do that.''

Lisa Leslie scored 21 points, Tamecka Dixon 17 and Witherspoon 10 in 22 minutes as a reserve for Los Angeles (9-2).

Lauren Jackson added 15 points and Kamila Vodichkova had 14 for the Storm (5-4).

``We didn't adjust,'' Leslie said. ``We didn't stick to our normal game plan by getting the ball inside as much as we would have liked, but I think our guards did a really good job of penetrating and getting us into the bonus early.''

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)