The Tamika Catchings-Diana Taurasi matchup is at the heart of these WNBA finals. Give Game 2 to Catchings, on offense and defense.

The Indiana star fell one rebound shy of the first triple-double in WNBA finals history and the Fever beat the Phoenix Mercury, 93-84, last night to square the best-of-five series 1-1.

After scoring eight points and fouling out in Game 1, Catchings had 19 points, 11 assists (tying a finals record) and nine rebounds to help the Fever steal home-court advantage in the series with the next two games in Indianapolis, beginning with Game 3 on Sunday.

The WNBA defensive player of the year for the third time, Catchings also harassed the league MVP Taurasi into a 7-for-22 shooting night. Taurasi finished with 20 points, going 2 of 10 on 3-pointers.

"She almost had a triple-double, huh?" Taurasi said, then whistled in amazement. "You knew she was going to come out and have a great game after Game 1. That's just the kind of player she is. We all knew that."

NBA

REPLACEMENTS ON JOB

C.J. Miles and Deron Williams scored 16 points apiece and the host Utah Jazz beat the Denver Nuggets, 103-87, last night in an uneventful debut for replacement referees in the NBA preseason.

The crew of Tre Maddox, Deldre Carr and C.J. Washington, part of a pool called on by the NBA because of a lockout with the regular referees, did as well as the league could have hoped by not standing out in the first exhibition game of the season. They called 69 fouls and only a handful drew a noticeable reaction.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

MOUNTAINEERS WIN

Noel Devine ran for a career-high 220 yards and a touchdown, leading West Virginia to a 35-24 victory over Colorado last night at Morgantown, W.Va.

Jarrett Brown threw two touchdown passes and freshman fullback Ryan Clarke ran for two fourth-quarter scores for West Virginia (3-1). Colorado fell to 1-3.

SOCCER

CHING ON U.S. ROSTER

Defender Jimmy Conard and forward Kenny Cooper were picked for a largely unchanged U.S. roster for World Cup qualifiers at Honduras on Oct. 10 and against Costa Rica four days later at Washington, D.C.

Kamehameha alum Brian Ching was among the forwards selected for the U.S., which is seeking its sixth straight World Cup berth. The United States (5-2-1) leads North and Central America and the Caribbean with 16 points. Mexico (5-3) is second with 15.