The Mercury are not dead yet. The defending champs won their second game in a row, this time easily handling the visiting Monarch.

Diana Taurasi once again led the way, this time scoring 26 points along with 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocked shots. Once again, she got enough help from her teammates as nearly everyone who played scored.

"We're not trying to send a message about being the champs; we're just trying to stay in the hunt," Taurasi said. "Every game is so important, and if we don't win out, we don't have a possibility of going anywhere or having another team help us out.

The Monarchs also understand the importance each game, but were not able to overcome a poor shooting performance. "This time of year you don't have any margin for error, everybody is playing do or die, including us," Jenny Boucek said. "You have to be at the top of your game, and we definitely weren't."

There was some good news in the game for the Monarchs though. Rebekkah Brunson returned to action after under going knee surgery during the Olympic break. And Ticha Penicheiro became the first player in league history to surpass 2,000 assists.