Maya Moore leads Minnesota Lynx past New York Liberty, 86-68 – WNBA Special
On Sunday night, Maya Moore scored a game-high 19 points and grabbed six rebounds as the league-leading Minnesota Lynx beat New York Liberty 86-68 at the Prudential Center. The victory snapped a three game home losing streak of
Minnesota. Both of the teams have already qualified for the WNBA Playoffs.
Moore ended the game with 7 for 13 from the field, including 3 for 6 from three-point range. Seimone Augustus and Amber Harris added 12 points each while Candice Wiggins came off the bench with 11 points and four assists in the
victory. Rebekkah Brunson had 10 points and six rebounds for Lynx, who had already clinched home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.
Plenette Pierson led New York with 17 points and eight rebounds. Nicole Powell added 10 points for Liberty, who saw their two-game winning streak snapped. New York’s leading scorer Cappie Pondexter could not find her rhythm this
time, missing important shots and shooting 0 for 9 from the field. Pondexter punctuated only nine points in the game, which is half of her season average.
Minnesota shot 54.0 percent from the field, including 8 for 18 on 3-pointers, and 76.9 percent from free throw line. After a home defeat to New York in the previous game, Minnesota’s defence was rock solid this time as they held
them to only 35.7 percent from the floor, including 23.1 percent beyond the arc, and 75 percent from the line.
Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve showed complete confidence in the terrific comeback of her team and said, “We were just disappointed with our overall effort and execution in that game,” “It takes very little motivation to get them to bounce
back after losses. They executed the game plan brilliantly and I thought we were difficult to play against and that was our goal.”
Minnesota got off to a terrific start and carried a ten-point lead, 31-21, after the first quarter. Lynx maintained their double-digit lead throughout the second quarter and held a 52-41 lead at the interval.
Leading by 11 points after the first half, Minnesota continued to press and outscored New York 15-5 in the third quarter, pushing their lead to 21 points, 67-46. Liberty did not get any closer than 15 points in the fourth quarter
and Lynx sealed 25th victory of this season.
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