PHOENIX Storm advances to WNBA Finals

Sue Bird made a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 2.8 seconds Sunday and the Seattle Storm advanced to the WNBA Finals with a 91-88 victory over the defending champion Phoenix Mercury, closing the game with a 15-0 run.

Diana Taurasi, who finished with 28 points, missed a contested 3-pointer at the buzzer for Phoenix.

Swin Cash had 23 points and eight rebounds, helping Seattle erase an 88-76 deficit in the second game of the best-of-3 conference finals. League MVP Lauren Jackson added 20 points and eight boards.

Phoenix missed shots on three consecutive possessions in the final 1 minute, 35 seconds, the last being Tameka Johnson's short layup against Bird. Bird grabbed the rebound and called timeout.

Johnson had 15 points and 12 assists for Phoenix, which had won two of the last three WNBA titles.

The Storm earned its seventh consecutive win and advanced to the finals for the first time since 2004. They will meet the winner of the Eastern Conference finals between Atlanta and New York.

Cash sparked Seattle's big rally with a three-point play with 3 minutes left and Jackson, who had been held relatively quiet, had five points in the final 2:33. Cash converted a tying layup with 36 seconds left after a Jackson offensive rebound.

Phoenix out together a 20-1 run in the second quarter, holding Seattle without a field goal for more than seven minutes. But the Storm scored the last seven points of the half to cut the lead to 48-40 at the break.

Taurasi, the league's leading scorer during the regular season, scored 10 points in an impressive stretch during the run after being held to nine points total in the first game of the series.

The Storm improved to 7-0 against the Mercury this year.

DREAM 81, LIBERTY 75: Angel McCoughtry scored 13 of her 21 points in the fourth quarter, leading the Atlanta Dream over host New York in the opener of the best-of-3 Eastern Conference finals.

Sancho Lyttle had 18 points and 13 rebounds, and Erika DeSouza added 12 points and 11 rebounds for the Dream, which scored the final seven points over the last 45 seconds.

Atlanta, playing for the first time since finishing a first-round sweep of Washington on Aug.27, led the East before losing six of their last seven and finishing fourth.

Game 2 is Tuesday in Atlanta, with Game 3, if necessary, back in New York on Thursday.

Atlanta, which led the league in rebounding, finished with a 40-28 edge against New York.

Colleges

Southern Methodist defeated Davidson 3-0 in a women's soccer game at Dallas. Davidson, which played at No. 7 Texas A&M on Friday, did not score in their two games in Texas. The Wildcats fell to 2-3 and SMU ran its record to 3-1-1.

The Wildcats trailed 2-0 after the Mustangs scored two goals less than a minute apart in the late stages of the 25th minute and just past the beginning of 26th minute. Jessica Bartol and Kristen Medeiros each scored a goal to give Southern Methodist all the scoring it would need.

The Mustangs added its last goal in the 49th minute of the second half by Shelby Redman.

Cycling

David Lopez of Spain won the ninth stage of the Spanish Vuelta at Alcoy, Spain, and Igor Anton retained the overall lead.

Caisse d'Epargne's Lopez broke away from a five-man group with just over 3 miles to go in the 116.6-mile leg that featured seven difficult climbs along the route in southeast Spain.

Lopez completed his first stage victory at a major race in 5 hours, 20 minutes, 51 seconds.

Roman Kreuziger of the Czech Republic was 6 seconds behind and Giampaolo Caruso of Italy crossed the line third, 13 seconds back.

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