Atlanta Dream beat Indiana Fever 94-77; Square WNBA Eastern Conference Finals 1-1
Playing at Philips Arena, Castro Marques posted a season-high 30 points as Atlanta Dream beat Indiana Fever 94-77 in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Sunday night. With the win, Atlanta tied the three game series at 1-all and kept their hopes alive of defending their Eastern Conference title.
Castro Marques, who replaced Brazilian Erika de Souza in the starting line-up, aggressively attacked the basket throughout the game. She also grabbed five rebounds and finished on a 13 for 22 shooting from the field, taking the series decider to Indianapolis.
Looking back at her performance after the game, Castro said “I was just much focused today,” “I knew the importance to step into the line-up. Once I made a couple of shots, I kept going. I thought 'this is my night.”
Angel McCoughtry also returned to her best after a spate of average performance. She added 27 points, grabbed four rebounds, dished out four assists and also stole the ball four times. Forwards Sancho Lyttle and Armintie Price contributed 10 points and seven rebounds each while Lindsey Harding also chipped in 10 points and dished out seven assists for Dream.
Katie Douglas led Indiana with 25 points, six assists, five rebounds and two steals. Douglas pinned 5 of 6 three-pointers in more than 36 minutes of action while Jessica Davenport came off the bench with 12 points and seven rebounds. Tammy Sutton-Brown also finished with 11 points, four rebounds, three assists and three blocks in the loss.
Loss was not the only thing, Indiana suffered on the night. In rather bizarre circumstance, newly crowned MVP Tamika Catchings hurt her foot in an inadvertent collision with Dream centre Alison Bales'. The injury left her status uncertain for Tuesday night's crucial game of the series. Catchings totalled eight points, nine rebounds and two steals prior to her injury.
Atlanta played the game on the back of combined team effort and went 39 for 71 (54.9 percent) from the field, limiting the Fever to only 29 for 74 (39.2 percent). In addition to that, Dream committed only 11 turnovers as compared to 17 by the visiting team.
McCoughtry got the Dream off to a fast start, scoring 13 points in the first quarter to snatch a nine-point lead going into the second. Indiana responded swiftly in the second quarter and trimmed Atlanta’s lead to two, 53-51, with 28 seconds to go in the quarter. However, Harding hit a jumper in the closing seconds and Dream settled for a 55-51 lead at halftime.
The third quarter was completely dominated by Atlanta. The home team tormented the fever defense from all angles and with nearly a minute to go till the fourth frame, they built a 12-point lead at 73-61. Zellous and Douglas however drove to the rim in the last 56 seconds and cut Fever’s deficit to eight, 73-65. This was the closest Indiana got though as Dream outscored them 21-12 in the fourth quarter to seal the win.
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