Lawson Leads Monarchs To 82-67 Victory Over Winless Comets

HOUSTON (AP) _ Kara Lawson scored 24 points to lead the Sacramento Monarchs to an 82-67 victory over the winless Houston Comets on Monday night. <br/><br/>Lawson shot 8-for-10 from the field, including

Tuesday, June 12th 2007, 7:35 am

By: News On 6

HOUSTON (AP) _ Kara Lawson scored 24 points to lead the Sacramento Monarchs to an 82-67 victory over the winless Houston Comets on Monday night.

Lawson shot 8-for-10 from the field, including 5-for-6 on 3-pointers. Nicole Powell added 17 points and Rebekkah Brunson 14 for the Monarchs (6-3), who won for the fourth time in five games.

Tina Thompson scored a season-high 33 points on 7-for-13 shooting from the floor and 17-for-18 on free throws to lead the Comets (0-7). Houston's longest losing streak before this season was four games, reached once during the 2005 season and twice in 2004.

Thompson's layup 13 seconds into the third period pulled the Comets to 32-28, before the Monarchs scored nine straight points. After two free throws by Thompson, Ticha Penicheiro hit a 3 to give Sacramento a 44-30 lead.

Lawson hit three 3s around a jumper by Thompson to stretch the Monarchs' lead to 53-36, its biggest of the game, with 2:13 to go in the third.

Thompson's jumper with 7:17 left in the game pulled Houston to 61-53, but the Monarchs pulled away again.

Latasha Byears, who scored nine points for Houston, was ejected from the game with 23 seconds left after receiving her second technical. Lawson made the ensuing free throw to push the lead back to 17.

Also Monday, Chamique Holdsclaw, a six-time WNBA All-Star who re-signed with the Los Angeles Sparks in February, stunned the team by retiring.

The 29-year-old forward had played in the Sparks' first five games this season, averaging 15.8 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.0 assists.

Holdsclaw did not give a reason for ending her pro basketball career.

``This was not an easy decision,'' she said in a statement released by the team. ``I put a lot of thought into it.''

Kathy Goodman said she and Carla Christofferson, the team's new owners, were surprised.

``This is not what we wanted,'' Goodman told The Associated Press by phone. ``She said she'd given it a lot of thought and decided she didn't want to play anymore.''

Goodman said Holdsclaw didn't give a reason and the owners didn't ask for one.