Error-prone Starzz lose to Mercury again

So much for cutting down the turnovers.

After making 26 Tuesday in their exhibition opener in Phoenix, the Utah Starzz came home to the Delta Center Saturday night and were worse in both losing margin (-18 in an 82-64 drubbing after Tuesday's 74-66 loss) and mistakes (+16 from +12) in their only home exhibition game. A crowd of 4,696 attended - less than half what the Mercury drew on Tuesday.Phoenix was again playing without five team members, at least four of them likely to make the club, who are still toiling in the world championships in Germany, as is the Starzz' 6-foot-5 Elena Baranova.

The WNBA season opens Thursday night when the Starzz host the Los Angeles Sparks. The world- championship players will all be with their respective WNBA teams by then.

Utah has an awful lot of chemistry to mix before Thursday if it's going to look any better than last year, when the Starzz were the shortest, youngest and last team in the WNBA.

The Starzz were not the league's turnover queens then. Sacramento was, with 20.7 a game. Utah was actually fifth in the eight-team league in turnover average at 18.57. But the Starzz will likely threaten that status this season. They made 30 turnovers Saturday. Like their Jazz counterparts, the Starzz also allowed far too many offensive rebounds and second-chance points . Utah had six of each.

In two games against the Mercury, the Starzz have out-mistaked them 56-28.

"Basically a ditto from the last game. Yes, I am worried," said Starzz coach Denise Taylor, who had been so anxious to win these two exhibition games that she didn't use four players on Tuesday and on Saturday gave four of them three minutes or less on the court, despite the fact she must cut three more by Wednesday to get down to the league's limit of 11 (including Baranova).

Actually, Utah started this game slugging it out with Phoenix as the early first half saw 10 lead changes and four tied scores. Utah even went ahead by as many as seven points as 7-foot-2 No. 1 draftee in the WNBA Margo Dydek of Poland sparked an 8-0 run, from being down 13-12 to ahead 20-13 with three blocked shots in about two minutes of play.

"I need to block more shots to help this team out," said Dydek, who totaled six of Utah's eight blocks, 11 points and eight rebounds. "In the first half," said Dydek, "I was tipping the ball out to the perimeter instead of catching it. It doesn't always work, so I need to grab it."