Fever-Liberty Preview

By KATE HEDLIN
Posted Aug 31 2010 3:42PM

The New York Liberty haven't lost back-to-back games since early July, and if they can continue that trend, they'll be moving on to the Eastern Conference finals.

With their best-of-three series against the Indiana Fever tied, the Liberty will try to close things out and advance at home Wednesday night.

New York missed a chance to eliminate Indiana on Sunday, losing 75-67 to the defending Eastern Conference champion in its lowest-scoring game since a 57-54 win over Chicago on July 11.

The Liberty had been one of the league's hottest teams in August after winning 12 of 13 and were poised to clinch the series following an 85-73 win in Game 1 at home. However, they shot 36.8 percent overall and were outscored 21-8 in the first quarter.

"We could not put the ball in the hole," coach Anne Donovan said. "We had poor offense."

Cappie Pondexter scored 24 points and Essence Carson had 20, but Pondexter had only nine in the first half after being limited to two in the opening period.

Pondexter finished 8 of 22 from the field. A 48.3 percent shooter during the regular season, she is shooting 37.7 percent in the first two games of the playoffs.

The Liberty will try to be more effective Wednesday night as they look to advance out of the first round for the first time since 2008 after missing the postseason last year. New York hasn't lost consecutive games since road defeats to Phoenix and Seattle from July 3-6 and has won nine in a row at home.

Indiana snapped a four-game losing streak Sunday and hopes its defensive struggles are a thing of the past.

The Fever had the third-best scoring defense in the WNBA during the regular season, holding opponents to 74.1 points per game, but they allowed an average of 80.3 during the skid. However, that turned around Sunday, when they held New York to 3-of-15 shooting in the first quarter to tie their record for fewest points allowed in a quarter in a playoff game.

"We know we're capable of winning games," said Tamika Catchings, who had 17 points and 13 rebounds. "We know as a team how good of a team we are. We're a great team. We clean up some things, we'll be OK."

Catchings, who was selected as the league's defensive player of the year and earned the WNBA's sportsmanship award, recorded her 14th double-double in 30 career playoff games Sunday. She scored 18 in Game 1 but only had seven rebounds.

The winner of this series faces Atlanta in the conference finals.

Pondexter, Vaughn lead Liberty to East finals

By VIN A. CHERWOO
Posted Sep 01 2010 10:05PM

NEW YORK (AP) Cappie Pondexter scored 30 points, including a tiebreaking jumper with 28 seconds remaining, to lead the New York Liberty to a 77-74 victory over the Indiana Fever on Wednesday night to advance to the Eastern Conference finals.

Kia Vaughn took advantage of some extended playing time and scored a season-high 13 points, and Essence Carson added 11 as the Liberty reached the conference finals for the second time in three years.

Katie Douglas scored 24 points, Tamika Catchings had 21 and Ebony Hoffman added 13 for the Fever, who fell to 0-7 in postseason series in which they didn't have home-court advantage.

The Liberty will face Atlanta in the East finals beginning Sunday night at Madison Square Garden.

After Pondexter made her go-ahead jumper from the right side of the basket while going out of bounds, Catchings missed a driving layup 4 seconds later and Taj McWilliams-Franklin grabbed the rebound off the side of the rim.

The Liberty called timeout, but were called for a 5-second violation on the ensuing inbounds play, turning the ball over to the Fever. Catchings missed another layup with 12.9 seconds to go, McWilliams-Franklin again corralled the rebound and passed to Vaughn, who was fouled by Douglas. Vaughn then made 1 of 2 free throws to extend the Liberty's lead to three points.

January missed a potential tying 3 with 3.9 seconds left.

New York was without starting center Janel McCarville, sidelined by a sprained left ankle. Plenette Pierson started in her place, and Vaughn played a season-high 26 minutes.

Trailing by five earlier in the fourth quarter, the Liberty rallied in the low-scoring period and took a 74-72 lead on Pondexter's three-point play with 1:14 remaining.

Hoffman rebounded her own missed layup and put it back to tie the score 24 seconds later.

Douglas scored nine points in the third quarter - on two 3s and three free throws - as the Fever, who led by one at halftime, increased their advantage to seven points on three occasions. The last time came when Catchings made 1 of 2 free throws to make it 66-59 with 1 1/2 minutes left in the period.

Pondexter had a layup about 15 seconds later and McWilliams-Franklin had a basket with under 32 seconds left to pull the Liberty to 66-63 heading to the fourth quarter.

Pondexter had a four-point play to give the Liberty a 32-28 lead with about 7:48 remaining in the first half. She hit two free throws less than four minutes later to extend New York's advantage to 42-36.

The Fever scored the final six points of the second quarter, capped by Douglas' two free throws with 41 seconds left, to take a 47-46 lead at the break.

Douglas scored six points to help Indiana get off to a fast start and take a 19-11 lead over the first 6 1/2 minutes.

Pondexter and Vaughn had two baskets each to pull the Liberty to 21-19 with about 1 1/2 minutes to go in the opening period.

Trailing by seven points in the final minute of the first quarter, the Liberty scored nine consecutive points to take a 28-26 lead on Vaughn's jumper with 8:20 to go in the second period.

• Fever: --
• Liberty: --

• Fever: --
• Liberty: --

• Lead Changes: 7
• Times Tied: 7

• Arena: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
• Officials: #55 Eric Brewton, #9 Denise Brooks, #38 Lamont Simpson
• Attendance: 16682
• Duration: 2:6