Pondexter's 31 lead Liberty in OT win

Throughout this record-breaking month, the Liberty proved time and again that there were four people playing with Cappie Pondexter - four people who were capable, formidable and not to be ignored.

Weeks ago, coach Anne Donovan went as far as to say the Liberty couldn't always ride Pondexter's coattails, that no one person can win a championship.

All that is entirely true. But depending on Pondexter just this one time couldn't hurt.

Pondexter scored 31 points, including six of her team's eight points in overtime, as the Liberty defeated the Connecticut Sun, 88-87, Sunday at the Garden.

"It came down to the end, and in overtime, Cappie was Cappie," Donovan said. "We rode her coattails to the win."

The Liberty (22-12) finished second in the Eastern Conference and will have home-court advantage against the Indiana Fever in a first-round series that begins Thursday. The Liberty went 15-3 after the All-Star break and finished with the best regular-season record in its 13-year history.

Washington (22-12) beat Atlanta, 90-81, to take first place in the conference. The Liberty, Washington and Indiana entered yesterday's games in a three-way tie for first, but Washington had a tiebreaker advantage over the Liberty and the Fever (21-13) lost to Minnesota in OT.

Nicole Powell finished with 14 points, Leilani Mitchell had 13 and Janel McCarville added 12 for the Liberty. Tina Charles led the Sun with 21.

McCarville hit both ends of a one-and-one with 2:53 remaining to break a tie at 82. Pondexter's running jump shot over heavy coverage with 13 seconds left in OT banked off the backboard and went in to give the Liberty an 88-85 lead.

With the Sun trailing by three and less than 10 seconds left, Tan White corralled a pass by Charles in three-point range but went for the layup instead of trying to tie the game.

"If you have to take a layup in the first five seconds, take it so we turn around and foul," Sun coach Mike Thibault said of the final shot. "After five seconds, we would have taken a three. Why we did that is what encapsulates what we did for this entire season."

The Liberty led 43-34 at the half, but that dwindled quickly in the third, thanks in part to a 9-3 Sun run to kick off the quarter. Sandrine Gruda's free throws with 6:22 left in the fourth gave the Sun a one-point lead. The teams exchanged blows until Charles' layup with 41 seconds left tied the score at 80 and sent it into overtime.

All the while, Pondexter continued to dominate. Her midcourt buzzer-beater gave the Liberty a 23-15 lead to end the first, and she finished with team highs in steals (four) and assists (six).