Angel McCoughtry scored 30 points and Erika de Souza added 23 points and 10 rebounds, but it wasn’t enough in Atlanta’s 88-82 loss to New York, the Dream’s seventh loss in eight games.
It was the Dream’s first home loss in nine tries and dropped them to 11-8 after a 10-1 start. They’ve been missing guard Tiffany Hayes and forward Sancho Lyttle to injuries for most of the past eight games.
This particular night belonged to New York’s Cappie Pondexter, who scored 33 points – one shy of her season high – mostly on perimeter jump shots, including 3-of-5 shooting from beyond the 3-point arc.
While Pondexter was putting up big offensive numbers, though, several of her teammates were chipping in, as three more scored in double figures, with Plenette Pierson (16 points, 12 rebounds) and Kelsey Bone (11 and 12) posting double-doubles in supporting roles.
Meanwhile, McCoughtry and De Souza were the only Atlanta players in double figures, leaving 65 percent of the scoring load on two sets of shoulders.
“They’re our best players, and you always know what you’re going to get from them every night,” guard Jasmine Thomas said. “But that doesn’t mean the rest of us can relax. We all chip in, but the chip in has to come up.”
That doesn’t just go for points but rebounds too, as the Liberty (10-13) outrebounded Atlanta 43-30, and led the Dream in second-chance points 22-10.
In the past two games – both losses – the Dream is a combined minus-25 in rebounding, and minus-17 in second-chance scoring.
“It’s the size. New York has some size in there to hold you down off the boards,” Atlanta coach Fred Williams said. “What they did was clamp up on our transition game, our run outs. We got a few early and then we didn’t get as many transition points.”
Despite those issues, Atlanta had a chance to win when McCoughtry’s 3-pointer went down with 38.9 seconds left, cutting New York’s lead to 83-80.
The Dream played defense straight up but couldn’t get the ball out of Pondexter’s hands, and she drew a foul while driving into the lane, then hit both foul shots.
After two McCoughtry free throws cut the lead back to 3, Pondexter again hit a free throw with 13.3 seconds left to effectively put the Dream away.
It’s been a difficult stretch for the Dream, now falling 2½ games back of Chicago after the Sky’s win Sunday, but Williams said it’s just their turn to deal with some adversity.
“Eighty percent of the league has been hit with injuries,” Williams said. “When you lose Sancho Lyttle and Tiffany during that stretch, especially hitting the road, you lose about 25 points and 12 rebounds and some steals that you have to try to make up. … Everyone has gone through it. So it just kind of hit us with the bug.”
The Dream got off to a hot start in this one, getting out of the gates with a 6-0 lead, but the Liberty quickly got back in it behind the shooting of Pondexter.
She scored 11 of New York’s first 13 points, eventually giving the Liberty their first lead of the game at 13-12.
Atlanta spent the rest of the first half playing catchup, once regaining the lead 26-25 on an Alex Bentley fastbreak layup with 6 minutes left in the half, but the Liberty went back up on the next possession and led the rest of the half, going into the locker room up 42-37.
Like in the rest of the game, rebounding was the biggest factor in the Liberty’s first-half success, they outrebounded Atlanta 24-11, with a 9-3 advantage on the offensive glass.
That work led to a 14-2 advantage in second-chance points for New York, as the Dream had little luck with rebounding for the first 20 minutes, before righting the ship somewhat in the second half.
De Souza’s double-double was her seventh in the past eight games. Her 23 points were a season high, besting the 17 she had against Indiana on June 25.
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