The Silver Stars played three quarters of pretty bad basketball, then turned it on late to beat Houston. Chantelle Anderson kept up her startling season. "I feel a lot better now," she said; "I'm more aggressive."

SASS shot poorly but ruled the free-throw line. Houston, for its part, couldn't hold on to the ball. Van Chancellor: "We had about five chances to win the game tonight, but we just couldn't... I'm at a loss."

Dan Hughes has kept around or above .500 a team missing both its expected leading scorer and its best experienced post. Hughes apparently gets some help from Styx.