1997 Phoenix Mercury season

1997 Phoenix Mercury season
Coach	Cheryl Miller
Arena	America West Arena
Attendance	13,703 per game
Results
Record	16–12 (.571)
Place	1st (Western)
Playoff finish	Lost WNBA Semifinals
1998 season →

The 1997 WNBA season was the first for the Phoenix Mercury.

Transactions

WNBA allocation draft

Player	Nationality	School/Team/Country
Jennifer Gillom	United States	Ole Miss
Michele Timms	Australia	WTV Wuppertal (Germany)

WNBA elite draft

See also: WNBA elite draft

Round	Pick	Player	Nationality	School/Team/Country
1	7	Bridget Pettis	United States	Florida
2	15	Nancy Lieberman-Cline	United States	Old Dominion

WNBA draft

See also: 1997 WNBA draft

Round	Pick	Player	Nationality	School/Team/Country
1	8	Toni Foster	United States	Iowa
2	9	Tia Jackson	United States	Iowa
3	24	Umeki Webb	United States	NC State
4	25	Monique Ambers	United States	Arizona State

Transactions

Date	Transaction
January 22, 1997	Drafted Jennifer Gillom and Michele Timms in the 1997 WNBA Allocation Draft [1]
January 27, 1997	Hired Cheryl Miller as Head Coach [1]
February 27, 1997	Drafted Bridget Pettis and Nancy Lieberman-Cline in the 1997 WNBA Elite Draft [1]
April 28, 1997	Drafted Toni Foster, Tia Jackson, Umeki Webb and Monique Ambers in the 1997 WNBA draft [1]
May 22, 1997	Signed Marlies Askamp and Tara Williams [1]
June 20, 1997	Waived Ryneldi Becenti [1]
July 22, 1997	Waived Molly Tuter [1]
	Signed Ryneldi Becenti [1]
July 31, 1997	Traded future considerations to the Sacramento Monarchs in exchange for Mikiko Hagiwara [1]

Roster

1997 Phoenix Mercury roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Nat. Name Height Weight DOB From Yrs F 42 Ambers, Monique 6' 4" (1.93m) 1970-12-21 Arizona State R C 14 Askamp, Marlies 6' 5" (1.96m) 198 lb (90kg) 1970-07-08 R G 4 Becenti, Ryneldi 5' 6" (1.68m) 1971-08-11 Arizona State R F/C 0 Foster, Toni 6' 1" (1.85m) 175 lb (79kg) 1971-11-16 Iowa R F/C 22 Gillom, Jennifer 6' 3" (1.91m) 180 lb (82kg) 1964-06-13 Mississippi R G 24 Hagiwara, Mikiko 5' 9" (1.75m) 160 lb (73kg) 1970-04-27 R F 3 Jackson, Tia 6' 0" (1.83m) 148 lb (67kg) 1972-04-21 Iowa R G 10 Lieberman-Cline, Nancy 5' 10" (1.78m) 150 lb (68kg) 1958-07-01 Old Dominion R G 32 Pettis, Bridget 5' 9" (1.75m) 150 lb (68kg) 1971-01-01 Florida R G 7 Timms, Michele 5' 7" (1.7m) 132 lb (60kg) 1965-06-28 R G 24 Tuter, Molly 1975-08-25 Arizona State R G/F 21 Webb, Umeki 5' 10" (1.78m) 162 lb (73kg) 1975-06-26 NC State R G 31 Williams, Tara 5' 11" (1.8m) 170 lb (77kg) 1974-07-23 Auburn R	Head coach Cheryl Miller (USC) Legend (C) Team captain (DP) Unsigned draft pick (FA) Free agent (S) Suspended Injured

Schedule

Regular season

1997 game log Total: 16–12 (Home: 11–3; Road: 5–9)
June: 2–2 (Home: 1–0; Road: 1–2) Game Date Team Score High points High rebounds High assists Location Attendance Record 1 June 22 Charlotte W 76–59 Bridget Pettis (17) Toni Foster (8) Michele Timms (6) America West Arena 1–0 2 June 24 @ Houston L 55–72 Toni Foster (13) Askamp Foster Webb (5) Umeki Webb (4) The Summit 1–1 3 June 26 @ Cleveland W 68–63 Gillom Pettis (14) Foster Webb (7) Michele Timms (4) Gund Arena 2–1 4 June 29 @ New York L 57–65 Jennifer Gillom (23) Gillom Webb (10) Michele Timms (5) Madison Square Garden 2–2
July: 6–6 (Home: 3–3; Road: 3–3) Game Date Team Score High points High rebounds High assists Location Attendance Record 5 July 3 @ Utah W 77–55 Jennifer Gillom (21) Toni Foster (9) Michele Timms (9) Delta Center 3–2 6 July 7 New York W 69–50 Bridget Pettis (25) Jennifer Gillom (13) Michele Timms (9) America West Arena 4–2 7 July 9 Houston W 66–53 Jennifer Gillom (20) Marlies Askamp (10) Umeki Webb (7) America West Arena 5–2 8 July 12 @ Utah L 51–52 Toni Foster (14) Toni Foster (7) Umeki Webb (3) Delta Center 5–3 9 July 13 @ Los Angeles W 57–56 Michele Timms (17) Umeki Webb (6) Michele Timms (3) Great Western Forum 6–3 10 July 16 Sacramento W 84–67 Jennifer Gillom (19) Bridget Pettis (7) Michele Timms (5) America West Arena 7–3 11 July 21 @ Sacramento W 70–57 Jennifer Gillom (19) Toni Foster (11) Michele Timms (7) ARCO Arena 8–3 12 July 22 Houston L 69–77 Michele Timms (24) Bridget Pettis (7) Bridget Pettis (4) America West Arena 8–4 13 July 17 Los Angeles L 83–86 (OT) Gillom Pettis (17) Jennifer Gillom (9) Michele Timms (9) America West Arena 8–5 14 July 28 Cleveland L 64–76 Jennifer Gillom (19) Marlies Askamp (8) Tia Jackson (4) America West Arena 8–6 15 July 30 @ Charlotte L 67–68 Jennifer Gillom (16) Marlies Askamp (6) Michele Timms (4) Charlotte Coliseum 8–7 16 July 31 @ Cleveland L 67–79 Askamp Gillom (12) Tia Jackson (8) Nancy Lieberman-Cline (4) Gund Arena 8–8
August: 8–4 (Home: 7–0; Road: 1–4) Game Date Team Score High points High rebounds High assists Location Attendance Record 17 August 2 @ New York L 70–80 Michele Timms (20) Jennifer Gillom (9) Michele Timms (6) Madison Square Garden 8–9 18 August 4 Sacramento W 83–60 Bridget Pettis (23) Toni Foster (8) Askamp Foster Pettis Timms (3) America West Arena 9–9 19 August 6 Utah W 78–46 Michele Timms (18) Askamp Webb (9) Michele Timms (7) America West Arena 10–9 20 August 7 @ Houston L 70–74 Michele Timms (24) Foster Timms (6) Michele Timms (4) The Summit 10–10 21 August 9 @ Charlotte L 59–79 Bridget Pettis (14) Toni Foster (7) Bridget Pettis (3) Charlotte Coliseum 10–11 22 August 12 New York W 77–67 Jennifer Gillom (23) Jennifer Gillom (8) Michele Timms (7) America West Arena 11–11 23 August 14 Cleveland W 61–55 Jennifer Gillom (19) Foster Timms (7) Michele Timms (6) America West Arena 12–11 24 August 17 Utah W 71–63 Jennifer Gillom (15) Gillom Timms (7) Michele Timms (5) America West Arena 13–11 25 August 18 @ Los Angeles L 66–75 Jennifer Gillom (18) Marlies Askamp (9) Michele Timms (4) Great Western Forum 13–12 26 August 20 @ Sacramento W 69–54 Bridget Pettis (18) Toni Foster (11) Umeki Webb (4) ARCO Arena 14–12 27 August 22 Charlotte W 78–63 Bridget Pettis (27) Jennifer Gillom (5) Michele Timms (8) America West Arena 15–12 28 August 24 Los Angeles W 73–68 (OT) Jennifer Gillom (29) Askamp Pettis (9) Michele Timms (7) America West Arena 16–12
1997 season schedule

Playoffs

1997 playoff game log
Semifinal vs. New York Liberty Game Date Team Score High points High rebounds High assists Location Attendance Record 1 August 28 New York L 41–59 Askamp Gillom (9) Jennifer Gillom (7) Pettis Webb (2) America West Arena 0–1
1997 playoff schedule

Season standings

Western Conference	W	L	PCT	Conf.	GB
Phoenix Mercury x	16	12	.571	9–3	–
Los Angeles Sparks o	14	14	.500	8–4	2.0
Sacramento Monarchs o	10	18	.357	4–8	6.0
Utah Starzz o	7	21	.250	3–9	9.0

Statistics

Legend
GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game	RPG	Rebounds per game
APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game	BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game
FG%	Field-goal percentage	3P%	3-point field-goal percentage	FT%	Free-throw percentage	TO	Turnovers per game
PF	Fouls per game		Team leader		League leader

Regular season

Player	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Michele Timms	27	27	35.8	.336	.345	.760	3.7	5.0	2.6	0.1	12.1
Jennifer Gillom	28	28	31.2	.434	.313	.777	5.4	0.8	1.3	0.5	15.7
Bridget Pettis	28	28	30.1	.334	.306	.898	3.8	2.8	1.8	0.4	12.6
Umeki Webb	28	17	27.7	.297	0.67	.687	4.2	2.4	2.4	0.3	5.0
Toni Foster	28	28	26.3	.468	.167	.704	6.1	1.0	1.9	0.8	8.8
Marlies Askamp	28	1	18.5	.393	.000	.763	5.2	0.8	0.8	0.3	7.5
Mikiko Hagiwara	12	5	15.5	.256	.286	.500	1.2	0.8	0.2	0.0	2.8
Tia Jackson	26	6	12.3	.342	.375	.840	2.2	1.0	0.9	0.3	2.8
Nancy Lieberman-Cline	25	0	11.2	.325	.231	.800	1.3	1.6	0.6	0.1	2.6
Ryneldi Becenti	1	0	8.0	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.0	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.0
Tara Williams	12	0	7.0	.410	.455	N/A	0.7	0.3	0.3	0.0	3.1
Monique Ambers	19	0	4.5	.444	N/A	.400	1.1	0.2	0.0	0.1	0.7
Molly Tuter	3	0	1.0	.000	N/A	N/A	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0

^‡Waived/Released during the season
^†Traded during the season
^≠Acquired during the season

• Toni Foster ranked ninth in the WNBA in total rebounds with 172
• Toni Foster was ranked ninth in the WNBA in steals with 53.
• Toni Foster tied for seventh in the WNBA in blocks with 21.
• Toni Foster ranked seventh in the WNBA in Field Goal Percentage (.468)
• Jennifer Gillom ranked tenth in the WNBA in Free Throw Pct with .777
• Jennifer Gillom ranked fourth in the WNBA in field goals with 163
• Jennifer Gillom ranked fifth in the WNBA in points with 440 points.
• Jennifer Gillom ranked fifth in the WNBA in points per game with 15.7
• Bridget Pettis was tied for tenth in the WNBA in steals with 49.
• Michele Timms ranked third in the WNBA in minutes per game with 35.8
• Michele Timms ranked second in the WNBA in steals with 71.
• Michele Timms ranked third in the WNBA in assists with 137.
• Chantel Tremitiere ranked fourth in the WNBA in assists with 135.
• Umeki Webb ranked fourth in the WNBA in steals with 68.

Awards and honors

• Jennifer Gillom, Center, All-WNBA Second Team ^[2]
• Bridget Pettis: Led WNBA, Free Throw Percentage, .898 ^[3]
• Michele Timms: Third in WNBA, 3-Pt Field Goals, 49

References

1. "1997 Phoenix Mercury Transactions". Basketball-Reference.com. Retrieved May 22, 2024.
2. "WNBA.com: Postseason Awards: 1997". www.wnba.com.
3. "1997 WNBA Season Summary - Basketball-Reference.com". Basketball-Reference.com.

External links

• Mercury on Basketball Reference