Dream fans will get their first chance to watch the team’s five new faces in a game that counts when they host New York in the regular-season home opener at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
General manager/coach Marynell Meadors was busy in the offseason trying to strengthen a team coming off consecutive WNBA finals. The team will raise a banner on Friday to honor winning the Eastern Conference in 2011.
But that’s not the banner that Meadors or her players want. To that end, she brought in two 3-point shooters in Cathrine Kraayeveld and Laurie Koehn, a steady backup point guard in Ketia Swanier, frontcourt depth in rookie Aneika Henry and backcourt depth in rookie Tiffany Hayes.
“It’s pretty exciting,” Hayes said. “It’s going to be a lot better than playing away from here. We’re going to have a lot of fans out there. It’s going to be a great day.”
Despite playing only one exhibition game, Meadors said the team already has great chemistry, but noted there were some issues with not knowing each other’s moves in the season-opening loss at Indiana.
As a result, the new faces didn’t score a lot. Three of the team’s returning starters, Angel McCoughtry, Sancho Lyttle and Lindsey Harding combined to score 60 of the team’s points in a 92-84 loss.
Meadors took the blame for the loss, saying she should have rotated more of the new players into the game during the third quarter to keep the starters fresh for the fourth.
Meadors said the team has looked much better playing together in scrimmages Monday and Tuesday.
The new players showed Meadors positive signs in their limited minutes.
Henry scored six points and grabbed six rebounds in 25 minutes in the first start of the rookie’s career. Kraayeveld scored two points, grabbed four rebounds and had two assists in 16 minutes. Swanier scored three points with three rebounds in seven minutes. Meadors said she would play more against the Liberty (0-3) on Friday.
“She’s fit right in with our system extremely well,” Meadors said of Swanier, whose is from Columbus. “I don’t know any other teams that have two faster point guards than we have.”
Perhaps no player made a bigger impression than Hayes. Though Meadors said she “politely fouled out” in her first WNBA game, she appreciated the aggressiveness with which she played offense and defense. Hayes had six points, three rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal before committing her sixth foul in 19 minutes.
“I was just trying to stay aggressive, trying to be a spark off the bench,” Hayes said.
Etc.
The Liberty will play without former Georgia Tech standout Alex Montgomery, who is supposed to miss the game because of an injured left foot. Her status is day-to-day. ... Mayor Kasim Reed will be at the game to honor the team for winning the Eastern Conference. ... Center Yelena Leuchanka has been cleared to play after missing the Indiana game with a concussion.
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