Holdsclaw, Hammon help Silver Stars stop Shock 87-75

Silver Stars stop Shock 87-75

SAN ANTONIO — Chamique Holdsclaw had 19 points and 11 rebounds and Becky Hammon scored 15 of her 17 points in the second half to lead the San Antonio Silver Stars to an 87-75 win over the Tulsa Shock on Friday.

San Antonio coach Sandy Brondello was back on the sideline for her first game since giving birth May 31 to a daughter, Jayda Grace Lange.

Hammon missed two games and had been slowed in others by a strained right quadriceps.

“The thing in general with this game today is just having Becky back,” Holdsclaw said. “We’ve had the best practice this week having her back in the lineup. She’s a great player at creating for others. She’s our Steve Nash.”

Edwige Lawson-Wade had 13 points and nine assists for San Antonio (3-5).

The Silver Stars scored the first 10 points of the second half to end a four-game losing streak.

Holdsclaw, Hammon and Lawson-Wade were key contributors in the third period, when San Antonio turned a 32-30 halftime deficit into a 60-50 lead entering the fourth quarter.

“If we were patient, we knew the game would come to us,” Lawson-Wade said. “That’s what we did. We were more aggressive, we had some steals and we were able to run the fast break. We did a great job of running tonight.”

The Silver Stars, who had 31 fastbreak points to the Shock’s 15, pulled away once they began to make Tulsa pay for its mistakes.

The Shock had 12 first-half turnovers, but none led to San Antonio points. In the second half, San Antonio scored 18 points off Tulsa’s 17 turnovers.

“It was our defense, definitely,” Hammon said. “Eddy (Lawson-Wade) was great, Chamique was great. We got our hands on a lot of balls.

“Basketball is a game of runs, and when you get that emotional high going, it can snowball. Today, it snowballed in a good way.”

Tulsa rallied late in the game, trimming a 14-point deficit to 82-75 before Hammon hit a shot from the lane with 1:54 left to stop the run.

“The turnovers we committed tonight were really embarrassing to me from a standpoint of when you pride yourself in making the opponent turn it over,” Shock coach Nolan Richardson said. “They didn’t press us or do anything, and when you turn it over that many times and the opponent’s not pressing you, you’ve got some serious issues with handling the basketball.”

Kara Braxton scored 14 points to lead the Shock. Jennifer Lacy and Natasha Lacy added nine points each.

NOTES: Silver Stars forward Michelle Snow went to the locker room midway through the third period after colliding at midcourt with Tulsa’s Scholanda Robinson. She suffered a facial contusion and is listed day to day.