Atlanta Dream dominate 2nd half to seal a comfortable victory against Washington Mystics – WNBA Recap
Atlanta Dream had a stellar second half in which they dominated the Washington Mystics by outscoring them 51-28, allowing them to take a comfortable 82-59 victory in the end here at the Philips Arena in Atlanta.
It was the first victory for the Dream since new Head Coach Fred Williams took over the charge of the team.
Erika de Souza led Atlanta in scoring with 21 points and 10 rebounds, going a spectacular 9 of 20 from the field.
"We got Fred's first win and we're happy. We've going to take this one game at a time. We don't know what is going to happen,” said Sancho Lyttle.
Atlanta played without league leading scorer Angel McCoughtry, but did not have any problems on the scoring end as four players had double digit points and the Dream completely controlled the 2nd half.
Atlanta started the game on fire, running away with an early 13-6 lead in the first period. However, Washington stayed well in the game and closed the deficit to 12-14 at the end of the period.
Atlanta continued their scoring streak in the second period, but Washington was able to stay close enough to make a run for the lead. With the Dream leading 25-19, Washington went on a 12-2 run that completely shocked Atlanta and took a 31-27 lead with a little over a minute remaining in the half. The Mystics led 33-31 at halftime.
Atlanta came into the 2nd half motivated for a victory, and got straight to work. They opened the period with a 16-8 run that helped them regain a 47-41 lead with 3:36 left in the period. A three point shot by Jasmine Thomas had the Mystics within three points of Atlanta, but the Dream ended the third period on a good note, going on a 10-4 run to have a 57-48 advantage going into the final period of the game.
Atlanta then scored the first 10 points of the final period and extended their lead to 67-48 with 5:38 left in the game and sealed the fate of the game for all purposes. Washington missed their first six field goal attempts of the period and went scoreless for the first 4 minutes and forty seconds. From there on, it was easy cruising for Atlanta, who eventually won 82-59.
Lindsey Harding scored 16 points and 5 assists for Atlanta, where as Tiffany Hayes added 15 points and 4 rebounds in the victory. Monique Currie was the leading scorer for Washington with 14 points, and Crystal Langhorne had 13 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists. The Mystics were, however, unable to match the scoring pace of Atlanta in the second half and eventually fell short.
Atlanta shot 42.3 percent from the field and were 21-29 from the foul line. They did not rely too much on three point shots, going 1 of 9 from the distance. However, they had 24 fast break points as compared to only 8 for Washington, and managed 13 more free throw attempts to have an outright advantage over the Mystics.
"We slowed them down in transition, which is what they are good at. In the second half, the game got away from us,” said a disappointed Currie at the end of the game.
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