Liberty Notes:

In what was a back-and-forth matchup that was tightly contested throughout, the New York Liberty ultimately fell to Los Angeles Sparks at home, 82-81.

The contest featured Liberty players donning pink apparel and special uniforms in honor of breast health awareness.

It was a defensive battle in the early going, as both teams combined to make just two of their first 12 field goal attempts, while turning the ball over five times in that span.

The Liberty went on a 12-4 run across the first and second quarters to build a 28-20 lead, but the Sparks battled back to tie the game at half, 41-41.

Tina Charles led all scorers with 27 points, adding six boards and a pair of blocks as well. It was the veteran’s 14th game this season scoring 20 or more.

Rebecca Allen set a new season-high with 13 points in the contest, 12 of which came in the first half. The guard shot over 70 percent from the field.

Kia Stokes, making her fourth start of the season and her first since June 2, grabbed 11 rebounds, with six coming on the offensive end. It was her second-highest total of the season, and the most since her last start.

Amanda Zahui B registered 13 points, and narrowly missed her second consecutive double-double with nine boards. In two games against the Sparks this season, the center is averaging 17.0 points per game.

Sugar Rodgers finished with 11 points; she drained three from behind the arc, including two in the game’s final 10 seconds.

The Liberty tallied 22 assists; they have finished with more than 20 in four of their past five games.

Seven of the Liberty’s losses this season have been by five points or less.

The Liberty have now dropped eight in a row, continuing their longest skid of the season.

SPARKS NOTES:

– Candace Parker passed Taj McWilliams-Franklin for 19th place all-time in scoring

– Nneka Ogwumike passed the 3,500-career points milestone

– Nneka Ogwumike continued her season long streak of scoring in double-digits in every game of the season

– Nneka Ogwumike grabbed her 2,500th rebound – The Sparks shot 37.5% in the first quarter

– The Sparks shot 47.1% in the first half

– The Sparks shot 44% after three quarters

– The Sparks shot 43.3% for the game

– The Sparks shot 12-of-28 on 3-pointers (42.9%)

– Chelsea Gray led the Sparks with 19 points on 4-for-7 from deep

Sparks Quotes:

Head coach Brian Agler on his team’s performance down the stretch… “You have to have people that can hit big shots. That’s where it begins. Then you just try to simplify things and space the floor. We have three players that can make plays in big moments with Chelsea [Gray], Candace [Parker] and Nneka [Ogwumike]. At the same time, two of the bigger shots we hit tonight were three pointers by Essence Carson and Riquna Williams down the stretch. You have to have those kinds of people too that can make a team pay for helping away from them.”

Agler on Sugar Rodgers late three pointers… “The first one, I didn’t think we defended as well as we could’ve. It was a really good shot, not to take anything away from her. The second one, I don’t know what else we could’ve done except foul her, which we didn’t want to do that. In my mind, I think she may have shot that left-handed. She was going left and she was sort of leaning. It was a heck of a shot.”

Agler on the close finish… “I thought Candace made a really good play with one second left since we didn’t have any timeouts so she threw it down to Nneka. That was smart because it was going away from our basket. They ran some good stuff down the stretch. They did the things you need to do to win games. You have to hit shots and run good offense and they did that. We are fortunate to win. They probably feel like they could’ve done things better just like we do.”

Agler on their team entering the playoffs… “There’s no question we have enough, as do some other teams. The situation now is what kind of mentality do you have. ‘Are you going to get prepared mentally and physically for the games? Are you going to be able to finish games?’ I don’t think we got off to a great start but we hung around and finally got a little momentum.”

Agler on the competitiveness of the WNBA… “I can’t remember the league being this tight. I don’t know why that is other than the obvious where teams are getting better. If you look around the league, when a team is missing a significant player, they can’t play at that high-level. The days are gone where you can miss a starter and still go win. It’s very difficult to do that now. Almost every team has lost people or a person and when that happened they didn’t win at a high rate.”

Nneka Ogwumike on New York Liberty’s effort… “It was no surprise. I don’t think their record is indicative of the type of team that they are. A lot of hard fighting players, we saw that today even when they went full strength…”

Ogwumike on thoughts down the stretch of the game … “Just making good plays, getting good shots, and not fouling. At the end they made some plays, but we were also able to respond which is really good. We didn’t let the control of the game get away from us completely.”

Chelsea Gray on balanced play/efforts from team… “I think when you have multiple weapons it’s hard to figure out how to guard us. How you want to attack defensively as well, we have two of the best defenders in Alana Beard and Odyssey Sims so trying to attack that way as well.”

Gray on head coach Brian Agler’s mentality late game... “To take of the ball, efficient execution, defensively get the stop and the rebound.”

Liberty Quotes:

Head coach Katie Smith’s opening statement… “I thought we played really well. Some little things to close the game could have been done a little bit better but overall we locked into the game plan and played really hard.”

Smith on Amanda Zahui B’s improvement through the season… “She came in with a great head on straight, excited about the year, and offensively playing with confidence. She’s really finding her niche. She’s a great stretch four. Her defense has improved and that has been a great positive. She’s been able to stay on the floor for long periods of time without reaching. She’s excellent at rebounding, she’s aggressive, and she makes things happen.”

Smith on the team’s discipline… “It’s decent. I think today was good. We want to congest on defense just like other teams. We want to play our personnel. You have to run shooters off the line; you have to know who they are. I thought our personnel on defense was better tonight. So, I thought today was an excellent effort by us.”

Smith on Sugar Rodgers’s game… “[The two shots at the end] are her specialty. She has the uncanny ability of making everything close. However she does it: throws it over her shoulder, does grandma style, behind the backboard, its usually on line. She’s somebody who we trusted who we’d know would get a decent look and get it to go”

Tina Charles on playing well against two of the top teams in the league… “The effort we have been playing with is what we need to bring all the time. We do need to get better at closing out games though. Down the stretch, we seem to fall apart a little bit and that’s how we end up losing. It’s a mental thing. We must make sure the ball is going to the right people at the right times. We must call out plays, defend as a team, rebound the ball, and just bear down. We have to finish strong.”

Charles on Breast Health Awareness Night… “It is special and personal to me. My grandmother had breast cancer. I lost a good friend to breast cancer in April. It is great that the WNBA highlights such an amazing campaign.”

Rebecca Allen on her performance tonight… “I have just been trying to stay ready all season. It feels good to get a few minutes and to hit a few shots.”

Allen on the team’s performance… “Playoffs obviously is not going to happen for us this season. We are playing with energy and just trying to have fun. We are paying a bit freer and just playing for the love of the game again.”