Liberty falls to Dream
Liberty's Cappie Pondexter takes a foul during New York Liberty game's win over Los Angeles Sparks 77 - 67. (June 26, 2011) Credit: Patrick E. McCarthy
Her team was sick of losing, so Erika de Souza decided to do something about it. She had 27 points and 15 rebounds as the Dream rallied for an 87-81 WNBA victory over the Liberty last night in Atlanta.
"Having lost the past few games, everybody was angry. So we were focused and just did our best," de Souza said after the Dream (3-7) outscored the Liberty 46-22 in the paint.
Cappie Pondexter scored 24 points for the Liberty (4-5), which went ahead by 10 points when Plenette Pierson hit an 18-footer with 3:40 left in the third quarter. "We kind of gave the game away in the second half," Pondexter said. "We didn't execute when we needed to and we turned the ball over in many situations, so there were many little things that we learned from tonight."
"In the first half, our plan worked, but in the second half theirs worked," said John Whisenant, whose Liberty had led 34-21 and 56-45. "They outperformed us. There were no tricks to any of it."
De Souza sank a 17-footer from the right baseline with 45.7 seconds remaining with the shot clock expiring for an 83-78 lead.
"Erika -- they did not have an answer for her down low, so we were attacking inside out," said Lindsey Harding, who had 25 points for the Dream. "Once they doubled her, she did a good job of finding people open and then opening up the lane for me and other players to drive inside."
Four selected for Ring of Honor. The Liberty has selected Teresa Weatherspoon, Vickie Johnson, Kym Hampton and Sue Wicks as the first four players to be inducted into its new Ring of Honor. They were selected by a special committee, with a fifth player to be chosen in fan voting July 11-22 on the team's website. The candidates are Rebecca Lobo, Tari Phillips, Crystal Robinson, Tamika Whitmore and Sophia Witherspoon. -- AP
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