PHOENIX, Aug. 9 (AP) -- Penny Taylor scored 31 points to lead four Phoenix players in double figures and the Mercury beat the New York Liberty 97-86 Thursday night.

Phoenix (20-11) won for the eighth time in nine games and remained atop the Western Conference, a game ahead of San Antonio. Cappie Pondexter added 27 points, Diana Taurasi 14 and Tangela Smith 11 for Phoenix, which tied a franchise mark for wins in a season.

"I think it is important for us to keep going, to get the wins for our confidence,'' Taylor said. "We're still working on things. We need to get things right going into the playoffs and that is the way to do it, in games and practice.''

Janel McCarville had a career-high 25 points and 11 rebounds and Shameka Christon also scored 25 points for New York (12-17), which has lost nine of 11.

The Liberty began the night in fifth place in the East, one game behind Washington for the conference's fourth and final playoff position, with five games left.

"I thought they were terrific tonight,'' Liberty coach Pat Coyle said. "We have to get everybody playing on all cylinders every night, we can't have a couple people just leading us, we have to get everybody.''

Phoenix shot 50 percent from the field (35-for-70), and held New York to 43 percent (30-for-70).

The Mercury led by as much as 13 in the final quarter but Christon, who had 11 points in the fourth, hit a pair of 3-pointers to help New York pull to 85-81 with 3:03 left.

"We play good and then somehow we let teams back into the game,'' Mercury coach Paul Westhead said. "So we never really just whip people, we just beat them kindly. But I will say that since the All-Star break, whenever we've had a tight encounter late in the game we have different players stepping and making big plays.''

Taylor, who has five games with at least 30 points this season, hit a free throw with 2:34 remaining and Kelly Miller grabbed the rebound on the subsequent miss and scored quickly to put Phoenix ahead by seven. New York never got closer than six the rest of the way.

"We kind of got out of synch and didn't follow through with our game plan towards the end,'' McCarville said. "They got a couple easy shots, easy layups, and there were missed box outs and easy putbacks.''

The Mercury went on a 13-6 run to open the second half and led 57-41 with 6:42 left after the second of consecutive 3-pointers by Taurasi.