Leslie slams first dunk in WNBA

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Posted 7:28AM on Wednesday, July 31, 2002

LOS ANGELES - Lisa Leslie went where no one else in the WNBA has gone before - above the rim for a dunk. The 6-foot-5 center became the first woman to dunk in a professional game Tuesday night, jamming on a breakaway in the first half of the Los Angeles Sparks' 82-73 loss to the Miami Sol. Leslie received an outlet pass from Latasha Byears, took two dribbles and dunked with one hand with 4:44 remaining before halftime. She smiled broadly and spread her arms wide as she raced back down the court. ``I feel really good about it,'' Leslie said. ``There was a lot of talk and pressure about it. It was a good dunk. It was hard enough. If the opportunity comes again, I'll do it.'' Sparks coach Michael Cooper jumped up and down on the team bench after the jam. ``We should have won this game for that reason alone,'' Cooper said of the dunk. Leslie's teammates said they had been waiting for the moment. ``We were anticipating the moment and it was spectacular,'' forward DeLisha Milton said. ``Lisa did not let us down. It was clean, and no one can say anything about it. She put it down, plain and simple.'' Leslie, who finished with 13 points and eight rebounds, dunked three times in practice during the recent All-Star weekend in Washington, but it had not been done in a game in the WNBA's six seasons. On July 22, Leslie became the first player in league history to score 3,000 points. ``It's just been such a blessing,'' Leslie said of her historic week. ``My life has been almost like a storybook.'' The first woman to dunk in a college game was West Virginia's Georgeann Wells, who did it Dec. 21, 1984. North Carolina's Charlotte Smith dunked in 1994. Houston Comets rookie Michelle Snow dunked three times during her college career at Tennessee. Miami coach Ron Rothstein called Leslie's jam just ``another dunk.'' ``It doesn't matter. We won,'' said Rothstein, who coached for four seasons in the NBA, and whose Sol dominated the Sparks most of Tuesday's game. Sheri Sam had 18 points, Betty Lennox added 17, and Sandy Brondello had 16 points for Miami (12-14), which stayed a half-game behind fourth-place Orlando in the race for the Eastern Conference's final playoff spot. Mwadi Mabika scored 17 points for the Sparks (20-5), whose lead over second-place Houston in the Western Conference dwindled to one game. Sam scored 11 points as Miami took a 19-8 lead. Los Angeles narrowed the deficit to 23-20 but Lennox scored all the points during an 8-0 run that extended the advantage to 31-20 with 7:56 left in the first half. The Sol held a 19-point advantage early in the second half before Los Angeles cut it to 75-70 with 1:50 to play. But Pollyanna Johns-Kimbrough made a lay-in, and Debbie Black converted two free throws to give Miami a 79-70 lead with 22.7 seconds left. The Sol scored 26 points off 18 Los Angeles turnovers. Los Angeles guard Tamecka Dixon collided with Johns-Kimbrough and was carried off the court with 24.2 seconds left.