LOS ANGELES — With her first five shots, Sparks rookie guard Zia Cooke could not miss.
Cooke, the former South Carolina star who the Sparks selected with the 10th pick in the 2023 WNBA Draft, scored 14 points in 15 minutes off the bench in the team’s 94-71 season-opening victory over Brittney Griner, Diana Taurasi and the Phoenix Mercury on Friday night at Crypto.com Arena.
“It couldn’t have went any better. We were able to get a team win,” said Cooke, who finished 5 for 6 from the field and scored all of her points in the second quarter. “I think individually, we all did really well. We were all able to perform at a high level and I think this is something that we want to continue to do.”
Sparks coach Curt Miller, who spent the past seven seasons as the head coach/general manager of the Connecticut Sun, credited Cooke for being a spark off the bench.
“I’ll give a shoutout to our rookie Zia Cooke. Without her we may not be sitting here with this result, without her first half,” Miller said. “We were struggling and that bench really propelled us. Everyone off that bench, but Zia in particular, really made some plays for us in that first half. What a rookie debut for her.”
Cooke, whose college coach Dawn Staley was on hand to see her debut, thinks the work she put during training camp helped her stay confident and loose on opening night.
“I think it all comes with the hard work that I’ve put in,” Cooke shared. “Training camp was definitely tough for me being able to adjust to a lot of different things but something my teammates always tell me, just go out there and be me, be myself and have fun. I think that’s what I did (Friday night) for sure was told myself to have fun and let the game come to me and let everything flow for myself.”
The Sparks trailed by 11 points in the first quarter but battled back with a dominant second quarter and had a 13-point lead by halftime to send them on their way to an easy win.
“I…
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