The Indiana Fever had two chances in 29 hours to advance to their first WNBA finals.

Deanna Nolan wouldn't let it happen.

A day after scoring 15 points in the second quarter of Detroit's victory in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals, Nolan had a franchise playoff-record 30 points as the Shock advanced to the championship round with a 81-65 victory in Game 3 yesterday in Auburn Hills, Mich.

The Fever led by as many as 13 points in the first quarter, but Nolan scored 20 points in a 14-minute span to pull Detroit back into the game.

"I wanted to see the flow of the game, and then I knew I needed to make something happen," said Nolan, who was 7 for 9 on 3-pointers.

Nolan's 54 points in two days helped the defending champs improve to 7-0 when facing elimination in the past two seasons. The Shock will face Phoenix starting tomorrow, going for their third title in five years.

"That was a spectacular individual effort by Deanna," Detroit coach Bill Laimbeer said.

Detroit is 4-0 at home in this year's playoffs and 0-2 on the road.

"We've done what we are supposed to do — win our home games," Laimbeer said. "We played all season to make sure we have home-court advantage, and if we win all our home games, we'll be the WNBA champions again."

Indiana lost both the lead and All-Star forward Tamika Catchings in the second quarter. Catchings, who missed the final 13 regular-season games with a left-foot injury, strained her right Achilles' tendon in the last minute of the first half and did not return.

"She's got a pretty significant injury," Fever coach Brian Winters said. "We've played without Catch before, but it is hard to lose your best player and someone of that stature and talent."

Catchings left the arena immediately after the game to fly back to Indiana for an examination and did not speak to the media.

SOCCER

U.S. ROSTER SET FOR BRAZIL; CHING LEFT OFF

Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley and Clint Dempsey lead a full-strength roster picked by U.S. coach Bob Bradley for Sunday's exhibition game against Brazil in Chicago.

Ten of the 11 players who started in the Americans' 1-0 loss at Sweden on Aug. 22 were selected, with Chivas USA defender Jonathan Bornstein the lone player dropped from the 19-man roster announced Monday. Thirteen of the players were on this year's roster that won the CONCACAF Gold Cup, and 14 of the 19 are based in Europe.

Hale'iwa's Brian Ching, a forward for Houston in MLS, was not chosen for the team.