Eric Degerman is SportsTriCities.com's managing editor. Eric is a longtime Tri-City Herald sportswriter who spent several years covering a variety of sports, including the Western Hockey League, golf and outdoors.
Have a question for Eric? Click here to e-mail him


reprint or license print story Print email this story to a friend E-Mail
Bookmark and Share

tool name

close
tool goes here

Friday, Jun. 05, 2009

Comments (0)

Leilani's sophmore season starts Sunday

By Eric Degerman, sportstricities.com

The WNBA regular season opens Sunday for the New York Liberty, and Kennewick's Leilani Mitchell no longer is a rookie.

And for those who predicted a quick demise for this women's professional basketball league, this will be the Liberty's 13th season.

Mitchell, who turns 24 on June 15, started five games of 34 games last season for the Liberty and averaged 15.2 minutes, 2.9 assists and 3.9 points per game. The Liberty lost in the Eastern Conference finals to the Detroit Shock -- the eventual WNBA champions

During the preseason, Mitchell started two of three games and averaged 22.7 minutes, 2.3 assists and 4.7 points.

Friday marked the final cut-down date for the WNBA, but Mitchell's spot on the team seemed rather certain considering she was one of three players featured this past week on the team's home page.

The association tips off its season Saturday with Detroit at Los Angeles on ABC. The Liberty are scheduled for two games on ESPN2 this season -- Aug. 4. at Detroit and Aug. 11 at Los Angeles.

Mitchell's peeps can see her live in Seattle on Saturday, Aug. 8 when the Liberty makes its only regular-season visit to play the Storm.

The regular season ends Sept. 13, with the playoffs set to begin Sept. 16.

The Liberty — one of the original eight franchises — has reached the WNBA Finals four times, but it has yet to win the title.



Member Options
Login
Register
Edit Account

Change Password
Request Password
Request Activation
TOP JOBS
    Find a Job
    Keywords:
    Location: