Dearica Hamby, Zia Cooke both scored 21 points, Sparks beat Mercury 98-85

PHOENIX – Dearica Hamby and Zia Cooke scored 21 points as the Los Angeles Sparks beat the Phoenix Mercury 98-85 on Friday night.

Aari McDonald tallied 11 points and Lexie Brown added 10 in the Sparks’ victory. Los Angeles wrapped up their preseason by going 2-0 after also winning 84-79 over the Seattle Storm on Saturday.

Kahleah Copper notched 16 points while Diana Taurasi clinched 13 as the Mercury were held winless in their preseason, 0-2. Phoenix shot 27-for-65 (41.5%) from the field and 16-for-32 (50%) from three in the defeat.

Fouls Trouble Mercury

Trailing early, the Sparks were down 12-8 before Brown nailed two three-pointers for an 8-0 run and a 16-12 lead. Herbert Harrigan would then swish a pair of triples for Phoenix as the first quarter ended 18-18.

Both teams would trade buckets back and forth in the second as neither team could pull away from the other.

The Mercury would be red-hot from behind the arc as they were 10-for-15 (66.7%) before halftime. Kiki Herbert Harrigan and Rebecca Allen both were perfect from deep in the half, going 3-for-3 each.

“It’s just me being confident in myself and my teammates being confident in me and giving me the ball,” Herbert Harrigan said on her performance.

What was ultimately the major difference in the game was that the Mercury fell into foul trouble. Phoenix committed 30 fouls and the Sparks made 28-of-31 (90.3%) free throws.

“I think part of this is figuring out the officiating, the preseason,” Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts said. “We haven’t had a lot of game action against each other. We need to do a better job of that, they shot 31 free throws. That’s way too many and that’s an area we need to improve in.”