# 1997 Sacramento Monarchs season

The 1997 WNBA season was the inaugural season for the Sacramento Monarchs.

## Transactions
### WNBA allocation draft

| Player | Nationality | School/Team/Country |
| Bridgette Gordon | United States | Tennessee |
| Ruthie Bolton | United States | Auburn |

### WNBA elite draft

| Round | Pick | Player | Nationality | School/Team/Country |
| 1 | 6 | Judy Mosley-McAfee | United States | Hawaii |
| 2 | 14 | Mikiko Hagiwara | Japan | Japan |

### WNBA draft

| Round | Pick | Player | Nationality | School/Team/Country |
| 1 | 2 | Pamela McGee | United States | USC |
| 2 | 15 | Denique Graves | United States | Howard |
| 3 | 18 | Chantel Tremitiere | United States | Auburn |
| 4 | 31 | Tajama Abraham | United States | George Washington |

### Transactions

| Date | Transaction |
| January 22, 1997 | Drafted Bridgette Gordon and Ruthie Bolton in the 1997 WNBA Allocation Draft |
| February 27, 1997 | Drafted Judy Mosley-McAfee and Mikiko Hagiwara in the 1997 WNBA Elite Draft |
| April 14, 1997 | Hired Mary Murphy as Head Coach |
| April 28, 1997 | Drafted Pamela McGee, Denique Graves, Chantel Tremitiere and Tajama Abraham in the 1997 WNBA Draft |
| July 18, 1997 | Waived Corissa Yasen |
| July 20, 1997 | Waived Judy Mosley-McAfee |
| July 27, 1997 | Waived Yvette Angel |
| July 28, 1997 | Fired Mary Murphy as Head Coach |
| July 28, 1997 | Hired Heidi VanDerveer as Head Coach |
| July 31, 1997 | Traded Mikiko Hagiwara to Phoenix Mercury in exchange for future considerations |
| August 6, 1997 | Waived Margold Clark |

## Schedule
### Regular season

1997 game log Total: 10–18 (Home: 8–8; Road: 2–10) :
June: 2–2 (Home: 1–1; Road: 1–1)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
1
June 21
@ Utah
W 70–60
Ruthie Bolton (18)
Ruthie Bolton (11)
Chantel Tremitiere (4)
Delta Center
1–0
2
June 23
Houston
L 62–73
Ruthie Bolton (27)
Ruthie Bolton (12)
Chantel Tremitiere (4)
ARCO Arena
1–1
3
June 26
Charlotte
W 78–70
Pamela McGee (23)
Bridgette Gordon (8)
Chantel Tremitiere (5)
ARCO Arena
2–1
4
June 27
@ Los Angeles
L 92–102
Ruthie Bolton (20)
Ruthie Bolton (6)
Ruthie Bolton (6)
Great Western Forum
2–2 :
July: 3–9 (Home: 2–5; Road: 1–4)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
5
July 2
Utah
L 68–73 (OT)
Ruthie Bolton (20)
Judy Mosley-McAfee (9)
Chantel Tremitiere (10)
ARCO Arena
2–3
6
July 6
Cleveland
W 70–67
Ruthie Bolton (23)
Bridgette Gordon (8)
Bolton Tremitiere (4)
ARCO Arena
3–3
7
July 7
@ Utah
W 79–69
Ruthie Bolton (22)
Bolton Gordon Mosley-McAfee Tremitiere (7)
Chantel Tremitiere (12)
Delta Center
4–3
8
July 10
@ Cleveland
L 61–77
Ruthie Bolton (25)
Ruthie Bolton (8)
Chantel Tremitiere (6)
Gund Arena
4–4
9
July 12
@ Houston
L 61–89
Ruthie Bolton (14)
Ruthie Bolton (8)
Chantel Tremitiere (5)
The Summit
4–5
10
July 15
Los Angeles
W 78–73
Bridgette Gordon (22)
Latasha Byears (10)
Byears Gordon Tremitiere (4)
ARCO Arena
5–5
11
July 16
@ Phoenix
L 67–84
Bridgette Gordon (19)
Latasha Byears (8)
Angel Gordon (3)
America West Arena
5–6
12
July 18
Houston
L 60–82
Bridgette Gordon (18)
Latasha Byears (6)
Angel Tremitiere (5)
ARCO Arena
5–7
13
July 21
Phoenix
L 57–50
Latasha Byears (21)
Latasha Byears (17)
Chantel Tremitiere (6)
ARCO Arena
5–8
14
July 25
Houston
L 76–86
Byears McGee (17)
Latasha Byears (17)
Chantel Tremitiere (5)
ARCO Arena
5–9
15
July 27
Los Angeles
L 62–84
Bolton McGee (16)
Bolton McGee (8)
Latasha Byears (6)
ARCO Arena
5–10
16
July 30
@ New York
L 68–73 (OT)
Bridgette Gordon (23)
Latasha Byears (10)
Chantel Tremitiere (7)
Madison Square Garden
5–11 :
August: 5–7 (Home: 5–2; Road: 0–5)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
17
August 1
@ Charlotte
L 61–85
Ruthie Bolton (18)
Ruthie Bolton (9)
Chantel Tremitiere (4)
Charlotte Coliseum
5–12
18
August 2
@ Cleveland
L 51–72
Ruthie Bolton (19)
Latasha Byears (11)
Chantel Tremitiere (5)
Gund Arena
5–13
19
August 4
@ Phoenix
L 60–83
Ruthie Bolton (22)
Latasha Byears (12)
Bridgette Gordon (5)
America West Arena
5–14
20
August 6
Charlotte
W 77–64
Ruthie Bolton (24)
Bridgette Gordon (9)
Ruthie Bolton (5)
ARCO Arena
6–14
21
August 8
Utah
W 93–78
Ruthie Bolton (34)
Latasha Byears (11)
Chantel Tremitiere (9)
ARCO Arena
7–14
22
August 10
New York
W 76–69
Latasha Byears (23)
Latasha Byears (8)
Chantel Tremitiere (5)
ARCO Arena
8–14
23
August 12
Cleveland
W 81–76
Ruthie Bolton (34)
Latasha Byears (11)
Byears Tremitiere (4)
ARCO Arena
9–14
24
August 14
@ Charlotte
L 51–68
Ruthie Bolton (13)
Latasha Byears (11)
Pamela McGee (3)
Charlotte Coliseum
9–15
25
August 15
@ New York
L 63–79
Pamela McGee (17)
Latasha Byears (8)
Bridgette Gordon (5)
Madison Square Garden
9–16
26
August 20
Phoenix
L 54–69
Ruthie Bolton (12)
Corissa Yasen (5)
Ruthie Bolton (5)
ARCO Arena
9–17
27
August 22
Los Angeles
L 77–88
Latasha Byears (19)
Ruthie Bolton (8)
Chantel Tremitiere (6)
Great Western Forum
9–18
28
August 24
Houston
W 68–58
Gordon McGee (16)
Bridgette Gordon (9)
Chantel Tremitiere (4)
ARCO Arena
10–18 :
1997 season 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
### Regular Season

| Player | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
| Chantel Tremitiere | 28 | 28 | 37.5 | .352 | .189 | .744 | 4.1 | 4.8 | 1.9 | 0.0 | 7.6 |
| Ruthie Bolton | 23 | 23 | 35.3 | .402 | .344 | .768 | 5.8 | 2.6 | 2.3 | 0.0 | 19.4 |
| Bridgette Gordon | 28 | 28 | 35.0 | .433 | .275 | .785 | 4.8 | 2.8 | 1.4 | 0.3 | 13.0 |
| Pamela McGee | 27 | 27 | 25.6 | .459 | .286 | .705 | 4.4 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 10.6 |
| Latasha Byears | 28 | 19 | 23.4 | .459 | .200 | .739 | 6.9 | 1.7 | 1.4 | 0.3 | 8.7 |
| Judy Mosley-McAfee | 13 | 9 | 20.4 | .440 | N/A | 1.000 | 3.6 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 4.2 |
| Yvette Angel | 5 | 3 | 18.0 | .438 | .000 | .000 | 1.8 | 2.2 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 2.8 |
| Tajama Anderson | 28 | 5 | 15.1 | .381 | N/A | .684 | 2.4 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 4.4 |
| Mikiko Hagiwara | 14 | 2 | 12.4 | .319 | .273 | .667 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 3.1 |
| Margold Clark | 4 | 0 | 11.5 | .500 | .000 | .500 | 1.5 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 1.8 |
| Laure Savasta | 14 | 0 | 11.2 | .244 | .200 | .778 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 2.4 |
| Corissa Yasen | 19 | 0 | 9.9 | .404 | .000 | .500 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 2.7 |
| Danielle Viglione | 7 | 0 | 4.3 | .273 | .250 | N/A | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 1.0 |
| Denique Graves | 22 | 0 | 3.9 | .222 | N/A | .500 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.7 |
$^‡$Waived/Released during the season $^†$Traded during the season $^≠$Acquired during the season
* Ruthie Bolton ranked second in the WNBA in points with 447 points.
* Ruthie Bolton ranked third in the WNBA in field goals with 164.
* Ruthie Bolton ranked fourth in the WNBA in Minutes per game with 35.3
* Ruthie Bolton ranked second in the WNBA in points per game with 19.4
* Ruthie Bolton was tied for sixth in the WNBA in steals with 54.
* Latasha Byears ranked fifth in the WNBA in total rebounds with 193
* Latasha Byears ranked ninth in the WNBA in Field Goal Percentage (.459)
* Bridgette Gordon ranked first in the WNBA in Minutes per game with 35.0
* Bridgette Gordon ranked ninth in the WNBA in Free Throw Pct with .785
* Pamela McGee ranked eighth in the WNBA in Field Goal Percentage (.460)
* Chantel Tremitiere was tied for sixth in the WNBA in steals with 54.
* Chantel Tremitiere ranked first in the WNBA in Minutes per game with 37.5

## Awards and honors

* Ruthie Bolton: Led WNBA, 3-Pt Field Goal Attempts, 192
* Ruthie Bolton: Second in WNBA, 3-Pt Field Goals, 66
* Latasha Byears: Led WNBA, Offensive Rebounds, 87
* Chantel Tremitiere: Led WNBA, Minutes Played 1051
* Chantel Tremitiere: Led WNBA, Turnovers, 122
* Chantel Tremitiere: Led WNBA, Minutes per game, 37.5