Angel McCoughtry carries Atlanta Dream to a 74-64 win over New York Liberty – WNBA Recap
On Sunday night, Atlanta Dream went over to the Prudential Center to hold of New York Liberty 74-64 in hard fought away win.
Angel McCoughtry, coming back from injury, shot the ball 7-0f-20 from the field but led the way for her team with 23 points. She made 8 out of 10 free throws and was adamant that the win was not because of her return to action
but rather due a total team effort.
“It's not because of me. It's a team effort and everybody coming together, regrouping after a loss,'' McCoughtry said.” (Lyttle) hit a couple of 3s ... she has the highest 3-point percentage shooting on the team and she's a post
player. Armintie got some great rebounds, got fouled. Lindsey (Harding) is coming back slowly.''
Sancho Lyttle mustered up 19 points to go along with 6 rebounds but her biggest contribution came on defence as she stole the ball on 5 occasions. She also knocked down two key three pointers at crucial stages of the game.
A double digit performance from four of New York players was not enough to prevent the team from losing their 4th game in 5 outings. Leilani Mitchell managed to get 16 points, Kara Braxton chipped in with 14 while Cappie
Pondexter added 12 points.
However Liberty dug them-selves into a hole by turning the ball 26 times during the game which led easy 31 points for Atlanta. They were also unable to convert most of their shots and had a conversion rate of only 34.3% in the
game.
In the early stages of the matchup, both sides were pretty evenly matched up and there was no telling apart with 5:38 remaining in the period. However a 16-6 run in the remaining time of the first quarter allowed Atlanta to hold
a 26-16 lead.
New York tried to turn things around in the second quarter and were able to do so as they held a two point lead, heading into the break. Mitchell hit two three pointers while Pondexter and Braxton carried the scoring by chipping
in 6 points each in the stanza.
The third quarter saw the Atlanta team come back with a vengeance. They started the period with an 11-2 run and never looked back after that. Along with racking up 25 points, they also held New York to only 5 made field goals in
the frame.
For most part of the final quarter, Dream did not allow their advantage to slip below the double figure mark and were leading 72-60 with 2:52 remaining.
In the next two minutes, New York scored 4 points while Atlanta went scoreless. But New York’s hopes of a comeback suffered a blow when Pondexter fouled out of the game, allowing the Dream to take this one by a difference of 10
points.
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