Dream's McCoughtry gives New York nightmares

By Pierce W. Huff

For the AJC

There are some things that a team’s best player is expected to do, like be its rock in tough situations.

Atlanta Dream forward Angel McCoughtry played true to her role on Sunday in Philips Arena.

With the Dream on n extended losing streak and in danger of dropping farther behind in the Eastern Conference, McCoughtry scored 28 points and had 10 rebounds and six assists to lift Atlanta to an 82-75 victory over the New York Liberty.

McCoughtry made up her mind the Dream were not going to havetheir season-high four-game losing streak extended to five games.

“I could see the look of doubt in my teammates' eyes,” she said. “I wasn’t going to let us lose.”

With McCoughtry leading the way, the Dream responded in the fourth quarter, outscoring New York 11-3 in the final two minutes and 55 seconds.

Atlanta (15-9) entered Sunday’s game 1½ games behind Eastern Conference-leading Indiana (15-7).

“Every game is a big game in the Eastern Conference,” McCoughtry said.

Supporting her was determined teammate was Iziane Castro Marques, who scored eight of her 21 points down the stretch, including a jump shot that hit the rim and bounced in to give the Dream a 73-72 lead with 2:38 left. She also hit two free throws to push the score to 79-72 with 35.1 seconds left.

New York’s Cappie Pondexter, who scored 26 points, was held scoreless over the final 6:46. New York (11-11) was outscored 15-7 after Pondexter scored her last basket, which came on a 3-pointer that gave the Liberty a 68-67 lead with 6:46 left.

“We were tag-teaming Pondexter,” Dream coach Marynell Meadors said.

Eager to stop their losing streak, the Dream started strong. They began the game with a 16-9 run, led by eight points from center Erika de Souza. New York cut the lead to 18-15 at the end of the quarter.

The Liberty began the second quarter with a 10-0 run to take a 25-18 lead with 5:05 remaining in the first half. The run came as the Dream missed their first eight shots from the field in the quarter.

The Dream ended a 5-1/2-minute scoring droughter, when de Souza hit a layup to cut the score to 25-20 with 4:49 left in the half.

The Liberty patiently ran their offense and padded their lead. Plenette Pierson hit a layup to give the visitors a 33-24 lead with 2:59 remaining. Pierson hit a foul-line jump shot that bounced on top of the front rim a couple of times before it went in to make the score 37-27 with 2:19 left.

New York led 41-33 at halftime.

Meadors replaced leading rebounder Sancho Lyttle with back-up shooting guard Armintie Price to start the second half. The move put Price at the small forward position, moved McCoughtry from small forward to Lyttle’s power forward position and resulted in a faster lineup.

The Dream began the third quarter with a 20-10 run, taking a 53-51 lead when Iziana Castro Marques hit a pull-up jump shot.

The Dream led 60-59 at the end of the quarter.