While the Mercury are on the brink of playoff elimination, guards Diana Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter are also on the brink of WNBA history.

With the news last week that Seattle center Lauren Jackson would miss the rest of the season, Taurasi and Pondexter are all but guaranteed of finishing 1-2 in the scoring race, a feat no teammates have ever accomplished.

Taurasi is currently tops in the league with a 23.9 scoring average while Pondexter is right behind at 22.3. Jackson ranks third at 20.2 but is out until at least the playoffs after having ankle surgery Thursday morning in her home country of Australia.

To ensure they don’t fall behind Jackson’s average, all Taurasi and Pondexter have to do is average 6.4 and 12.9 points, respectively, over the final seven games, a seemingly easy task.

Of the league’s other players, only Minnesota forward Seimone Augustus (19.9) has an outside shot of catching Pondexter. To move into second, though, Augustus would have to outscore Pondexter by 62 points the rest of the season.

“Hopefully (continuing to) score that many points can lead us to some W’s,” Pondexter said. “That’s the most important thing. If it happens, it will be a great accomplishment.”

TRAINING CAMP PART II

To say the workouts coach Corey Gaines put his players through during the Olympic break were tough would be an understatement, according to rookie LaToya Pringle.

“I don’t think tough is the word,” she said Wednesday of the practices that began Aug. 8.

For more coverage of Phoenix sports, be sure to visit eastvalleytribune.com

“When we would leave practice and even though we might have the next day off, we were dreading on our day off coming back. … It was rigorous, a lot of running, a lot of running and some more running. We didn’t really go over our plays until the last week.”

All that running, though, paid dividends. Gaines said all his players have improved, but none more so than Pringle.

“Toy is definitely a different Toy,” Gaines said, noting she finally has regained her stamina after knee surgery in April.

Pringle, who is no longer wearing a brace on her knee, will be counted on to be a big contributor down the stretch as she takes over the starting center job vacated by Tangela Smith (knee surgery).

BONUS SHOT

Before she was signed by the Mercury earlier this month, center Olympia Scott was busy running a parenting education company. The Stanford graduate and her mother founded Super Parenting LLC in 2004 and recently started offering online parenting classes through the company’s Web site, superparenting.com.

COPYRIGHT 2008, EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE. Used with permission.