AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) Tammy Sutton-Brown scored 19 points and Andrea Stinson added 14 as the Charlotte Sting helped their playoff chances with a 76-65 victory over the Detroit Shock on Tuesday night.

The Sting, however, lost All-Star point guard Dawn Staley to a sprained ankle with two minutes to play. Her status for Friday's game in Minnesota wasn't known.

"It was scary to see Dawn go down," Stinson said. "She's our leader on the floor and we need her out there."

Allison Feaster added 12 points for Charlotte (15-14), which snapped a five-game losing streak and moved one-half game ahead of Orlando and into third place in the WNBA's Eastern Conference. The top four teams in conference qualify for the playoffs.

"This was a big game for us. We'd lost a bunch in a row, so this one was huge," Sutton-Brown said.

Charlotte coach Anne Donovan knew her team needed the win badly.

"To outsiders, this is just a win over Detroit, but people who know this league know that this is a solid team," Donovan said. "We weren't playing very well, and we needed this one to boost our confidence."

Elaine Powell had 15 points and Swin Cash added 10 for Detroit (8-21), which had won two straight.

"This was an important game for them and they played well," Detroit coach Bill Laimbeer said. "We just didn't have it tonight. We were missing something, and I'm not quite sure what it was."

Charlotte led 40-31 at halftime behind 12 points from Sutton-Brown, then got off to a quick start in the second when Charlotte Smith hit a 3-pointer in the opening seconds.

A basket by Sutton-Brown gave the Sting a 14-point lead before the Shock had their only rally of the second half.

A 3-pointer by Deanna Nolan got Detroit within 46-40, but two free throws by Sutton-Brown capped a run by the Sting that got their lead back to 11 points and the Shock never challenged again.

"I think with us being out of the playoffs and them being in the hunt, they were just hungrier," Shock forward Astou Ndiaye-Diatta said. "They played harder and with emotion. That was basically it."

Notes: The road team won all three games in the season series, with Charlotte finishing with a 2-1 edge. ... Donovan picked up a technical foul for arguing in the second half. ... Detroit fell to 8-11 under Laimbeer and need to win the final three games to get him to .500.

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