New York Liberty keep their playoff hopes alive with a powerful win while Phoenix Mercury’s dismal season continuesto get even worse .....
The dismal season just got worse for Phoenix Mercury as they fell to 6-20 record courtesy of an 87-59 loss to New York Liberty on Wednesday night at the Prudential Center.
New York, in their pursuit of a playoff berth in the Eastern Conference, used the performances of five of their players who ended the night scoring in double figures. Plenette Pierson led the way with 17 points while Kara Braxton
provided equal support with 12 points. Nicole Powell chipped in with 11 while Cappie Pondexter contributed 10 points and 8 assists. At the same time, Alex Montgomery came off the bench to keep the reserve scoring alive with 12 points.
New York dominated the game throughout the night as they bettered Phoenix in every aspect of the game. They out-rebounded Mercury 40-34 and had 27 total assists as compared to Phoenix’s 9.
Phoenix got off to a horror start and faced a 11-0 deficit after 3 and half minutes. With their opponents struggling to make the most of their chances, New York continued to dominate proceedings and took a 23-13 into the second
quarter. The second quarter was no different as New York put together a 10-0 run to start the stanza and attained a firm grip over the contest.
Phoenix did manage to show some signs of life mid-way during the period. However, Liberty were equal to every challenge that came their way and took a 51-29.
Keeping the momentum going, Liberty opened up the third quarter with a 6-0 run and used another 5-0 run midway to further prolong their advantage.
By the close of three quarters, Liberty, were leading 70-42 and never really looked in any kind of trouble.
With the final quarter merely a formality, New York were expected to ease their foot of the pedal.
However, even though they did not dominate proceedings the same way they had done the first three stanzas’s but stayed equivalent by racking up the same number of points as Phoenix did in the period.
DeWanna Bonner led the losing effort for Phoenix with 20 points while Alexis Hornbuckle and Diana Taurasi chipped in 10 points each.
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