An inside look at the Dream’s 63-58 exhibition victory against the New York Liberty on Sunday:
How the game was won: The Dream dominated the third quarter of its only exhibition game, outscoring New York 17-6 to push a one-point halftime lead into a 50-38 lead after three quarters. The Dream won despite shooting just 31.9 percent from the field.
Dream highlights: Tiffany Hayes scored a team-high 14 points. Erika de Souza was the only other Dream player in double figures (10 points) and led the Dream in rebounds with seven. … The Dream committed just 14 turnovers, while forcing 22. Samantha Prahalis had a team-high three steals. … Rookie Shoni Schimmel had eight points, including two three-pointers and a team-high four assists.
Dream lowlight: New York held a 44-34 rebounding advantage.
Quotable: "First of all, I thought it was very, very, nice to beat Bill Laimbeer, the 'Big Bad' Bill Laimbeer. Second, I think our team came out a little flat in the beginning of the game. But we made some adjustments in the second half. We picked up our energy, and when we play that way, we're going to be an impressive team." — New Dream coach Michael Cooper.
“I think all the teams are going to be physical so we have to be ready for that. Coach was telling us that we can’t back down when people get physical with us, we just have to fight back, so it was good to get a piece of that today.” — Dream guard Tiffany Hayes.
“It felt great to get out there and play together as a team against somebody instead of each other. It felt great to get out there and have fun. There were jitters there in the beginning of the first half, but once the second half came I think we all settled down, came together, and did what coach wanted us to do, which was go out there and execute.” — Dream guard Shoni Schimmel.
Next: Cuts are upcoming as stars Sancho Lyttle and Angel McCoughtry return this week to the team. The Dream opens its regular season at home against San Antonio at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
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