Cappie Pondexter fashions an emphatic New York Liberty win over Atlanta Dream – WNBA Recap
On Tuesday night New York Liberty went over to visit Atlanta Dream and came out 73-60 winners at the Philips Arena, breaking a sequence of two losses in doing so.
Cappie Pondexter led the charge with 14 points for Liberty. She also paced the team in assists by dishing out a season high 13.
“I brought a great deal of energy tonight, which has been inconsistent with us,'' Pondexter said after the game. “I feel like when we play with a lot of energy it allows us to play both ends of the floor the way we really want
to.''
Essence Carson also played well and shot 4-of-10 from the field for 14 points. Her performance was highlighted by the impressive 3-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc.
Kia Vaughn was another player crossing the double figure mark with 12 points and 5 rebounds while Leilani Mitchell chipped in with 10 points. She also was responsible for giving Liberty their first lead in the ball game with a
pull-up jump shot.
“We were so hungry for a win,” Mitchell said. “We were just playing harder. We were taking it easy in the last couple of practices trying to save our legs for this game.”
The opening stages of the first quarter saw both teams go head to head and there was not much to tell apart the scores. Trailing by 4 points with 3:52 remaining in the quarter, New York closed out the proceedings with a 9-3 run
to lead 17-15.
Liberty carried that momentum into the second quarter, opening it up with a 6-2 run and never looked like giving up their advantage for the remaining time in the first half. New York closed out the first half in similar fashion
to the way they ended the first quarter, pulling off a 7-2 run to lead by 6 at the interval.
The third quarter was a scoreless affair in the early stages with both sides struggling to find their shooting rhythm. However, New York had Carson making two triples separated by a free throw to give them a 9 point lead which
prevailed till the end of the quarter.
It took almost 5 and half minutes of the fourth quarter for Liberty to get their lead above the double digit mark and despite taking their foot off the pedal in the closing stages, the visitors never really looked in trouble.
The shooting troubles for Atlanta were very prominent in the game. They were playing without their best player Angel McCoughtry for the second game running and it showed. Without Angel present on the floor, Dream struggled to get
much of their offence and only shot the ball 35.3% from the field.
Lindsey Harding and Sancho Lyttle tried their best by racking up 13 points each but Atlanta dug themselves into a hole by missing several easy baskets from close range.
"I thought we did better going to the offensive boards, but we'd rebound and we wouldn't put the shot down,'' Atlanta Coach, Marynell Meadors said. ``We have to make shots.''
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