Pondexter helps Liberty roll over Tulsa

NEWARK -- To arrive here at Prudential Center before a game, the Liberty first meets as a team at its practice facility in Greenburgh. The players grab their gear, board a couple of vans and fight through traffic. It is an overlooked and exhaustive routine.

Completing this routine for the fourth time in seven days, the team, simply put, was eager for a breezy afternoon. It's just what they got in beating last-place Tulsa, 88-57, in front of 6,735 Sunday.

"We didn't have our mud boots on," coach John Whisenant said. "I told the team just now, 'I don't have a secret to unlock your energy, but when you play with energy and determination, we're a pretty good team.' "

The win helped dispel some of the sour taste from Friday's loss to Connecticut, but this was hardly a test for the 9-6 Liberty, who face the Sun again Tuesday before getting nine days off for the All-Star break. Cappie Pondexter had 18 points and Essence Carson 17.

"I think we came out and attacked the game the way we should've after a loss," Pondexter said.

The 1-14 Shock -- whose coach, Nolan Richardson, resigned last week and was replaced by Teresa Edwards -- managed to hang tough through the first half. Ahead 48-33 at halftime, the Liberty began the third quarter with a 17-4 run.

The team's constricting defense was its normal stifling self, holding an opponent to fewer than 70 points for the fourth time this season. The Shock made 15 turnovers and shot 33.9 percent.

"That's what our defense is supposed to do," Whisenant said. "I think they got tentative with how they were going to attack it."

The Liberty was buoyed by the return of Plenette Pierson, who missed Friday's game with a left knee injury and scored 12 points in 15 minutes Sunday. It was also a bounce-back game for Carson, who scored just two points against Connecticut but found her rhythm early Sunday.

"That happens sometimes," Carson said. "You've got to have a very short memory and forget about it. I let that one go."