Mercury guard Cappie Pondexter, under pressure from Detroit's Shannon Johnson, gets off a shot under the basket in the second quarter of Game 4 in Phoenix on Thursday night.

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PHOENIX — The former soccer player reappeared, sans ball and cleats. Diana Taurasi did not pull off a Brandi Chastain moment when the final horn sounded, but it was not too far removed.

An elimination game turned into a second chance for the Mercury, and when Taurasi dropped to her knees on the US Airways hardwood, looked upward and pumped her arms to the air, Phoenix somehow had forged a thrilling 77-76 victory in Game 4 of the WNBA Finals on Thursday night.

The series is tied at two games each.

So the teams will travel east to play one more game Sunday.

The two players most responsible for the bedlam at US Airways Center were Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter, and they let out the loudest of the screams.

"I didn't feel a thing," Taurasi said. "It was the greatest moment."

How it compares with her NCAA championship moments from her University of Connecticut days is anyone's guess, a theory better left for her to decide should the Mercury win the title.

Getting there, however, was not part of the plan.

For the second straight game, the ball clanged, and clanged some more, a second consecutive effort of sub-40 percent shooting.

Phoenix had its second-lowest point total of the season at halftime, trailing 35-33.

"I said, 'This can't continue,'" Mercury coach Paul Westhead said.

It did — until the fourth quarter.

Thanks to Detroit's six turnovers and a little — gasp — defense, Phoenix kept itself within one shot.

Plenette Pierson and Deanna Nolan came up big for Detroit in the fourth quarter, but Pondexter pushed them aside in the final two minutes.

Pondexter, a second-year guard, drove and fed a struggling Kelly Miller in the corner for a three-pointer to pull the Mercury within one with 90 seconds left.

"It felt good when it left my hand," Miller said. "Unlike most of the others."

Two possessions later, Pondexter put her head down again and put back her own miss with 42 seconds left.

Next time down the floor, Pondexter did a crossover dribble, beating Nolan to give Phoenix its final lead with 21.7 seconds remaining.

"She was legendary status," Taurasi said. "She's amazing."

Said Pondexter: "When the game is on the line, I feel like I can win every time."

Phoenix cut off Nolan and Katie Smith during Detroit's final possession, and Shannon Johnson's airball at the horn sent the arena into sensory overload.

Nolan had 17 points, eight rebounds and five assists in 40 minutes, and Pierson scored 23.

Taurasi and Pondexter, who scored 26, combined for 46 points. The rest of the starters shot 8 for 36.

Joyous as they were in the immediate aftermath, Phoenix quickly reined in its perspective, but the locker room could finally do what was taboo all season: Look ahead to one more.

"It was scripted about as well as it could be," said Westhead, who rattled off Istanbul, Moscow and Paris among his ideal places to play Thursday's deciding game.

They'll settle for suburban Detroit.

Added Westhead: "If I'm a fan, I couldn't ask for anything more."