SAN ANTONIO — Katie Smith is taking charge on the court, and her energetic effort has helped move the Detroit Shock within a win of its second WNBA championship in three years.
Smith scored 22 points and the Shock built a big lead in the first quarter, then hung on to beat the San Antonio Silver Stars 69-61 on Friday night and go up 2-0 in the WNBA finals.
Game 3 in the best-of-five series is Sunday at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Mich.
“You want to find a way to win, whether it’s pickup or a game here,” said Smith, who has led the Shock in scoring for both games. “You just try to stay aggressive. I just tried to stay in that attack mode.”
Deanna Nolan and Kara Braxton added 12 points each for the Shock, who led 19-2 less than six minutes into the game.
Becky Hammon went 11-of-12 from the foul line and had 24 points to lead San Antonio.
The Silver Stars tied the game with 3:26 left in the third quarter on a pair of free throws by Hammon, and she put San Antonio ahead 45-44 with 1:46 left in the quarter on another pair of free throws.
“We exerted a lot of energy to crawl back,” Hammon said.
Plenette Pierson, wearing a protective wrap on her shoulder after missing Game 1 with an injury, answered with a reverse layup for her only points of the night. Smith followed with two free throws that gave Detroit a 48-45 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
The Shock expanded the lead to 66-55 with 2:15 to play after Smith hit a 10-foot jumper, Taj McWilliams-Franklin scored on a 17-footer and Braxton made a layup.
Smith, McWilliams-Franklin and Braxton combined to go 8-of-11 in the fourth quarter and outscored San Antonio 17-16.
Smith scored 25 points in Detroit’s eight-point Game 1 victory. She’s hit 6-of-12 3-pointers and is averaging 23.5 points in the finals.
“Katie Smith is killing us,” Hammon said. “And she’s facilitating a lot of people.”
Parker honored.
Candice Parker received the league’s most valuable player award, becoming the first player to win the award along with the rookie of the year honors. The Los Angeles star was unanimously selected rookie of the year.
The awards capped a big run for Parker, who was college player of the year last season for national champion Tennessee. Parker also was a member of the gold-medal winning U.S. team in the Beijing Olympics.
Parker edged Connecticut’s Lindsay Whalen and Seattle’s Sue Bird in the MVP race. Parker, the top overall draft pick this year, averaged 18.5 points and 9.5 rebounds. She had a high of 40 points and grabbed 10 or more rebounds in 17 games.
