Cappie Pondexter missed a game-winning tip-in at the fourth-quarter buzzer then scored seven of her 23 points in overtime to help the Phoenix Mercury escape with a 120-116 victory over the Indiana Fever Tuesday in a wild opener of the WNBA finals. The Phoenix point guard, scored the final five points in the highest-scoring game in WNBA history. Penny Taylor added 23 points and newly crowned league MVP Diana Taurasi had 22 for the Mercury, in search of their second title in three years. Game 2 is Thursday night in Phoenix. Katie Douglas tied it with a 3-pointer for Indiana with 7.1 seconds left in regulation, then scored eight in overtime for a career playoff high 30 points. Ebony Hoffman had a career-high 27 on 12 of 14 shooting as the Fever set a franchise scoring record in just the second 100-point game in the club's history. Before this one, the league's highest-scoring game was Phoenix's 111-110 victory over Houston in triple overtime in a regular-season contest on Aug. 10, 2006. The Mercury and Fever each scored more points than any team previously in league history. The old mark was 115, of course by Phoenix, in an overtime victory over Sacramento on June 13.
