NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Essence Carson scored 22 points and Cappie Pondexter had 20 to lead the New York Liberty to a 77-59 victory over the Seattle Storm on Saturday. <\/p>\n
DeMya Walker added 11 points for New York (5-9), who had lost four of its previous five. <\/p>\n
Ann Wauters and Tina Thompson scored 10 points each for Seattle (6-8), which snapped a five-game winning streak. The Storm shot just 32 percent from the field (19-for-59), including 4-for-22 on three-pointers. <\/p>\n
Sue Bird's third third-pointer of the game -- and first since about 4 minutes into the game -- capped a 7-1 run that pulled the Storm to 56-48 heading to the fourth quarter. <\/p>\n
However, Pondexter and Kara Braxton had consecutive layups to restore the Liberty's double-digit lead, 65-52, with 6:17 to go. Seattle got no closer than 10 again. <\/p>\n
Nicole Powell's jumper with less than 43 seconds to go closed the scoring and gave New York its largest lead of the game. <\/p>\n
Carson had a bank shot and Pondexter made a layup in the opening minute of the third quarter to extend the Liberty's eight-point halftime lead to 35-23. <\/p>\n
Thompson's layup cut the lead to 39-32 with 7:05 left in the period, but New York scored the next six points and Pondexter's 3 with 4 minutes to go pushed the Liberty's advantage to 50-36. <\/p>\n
The Liberty's second 9-0 run of the game, started by Carson's two free throws with just more than a minute remaining in the first quarter and capped by Kia Vaughn's layup with 8 minutes to go in the half, gave them a 20-12 lead. <\/p>\n
Camille Little's three-point play pulled Seattle to 24-21 near the midpoint of the second quarter, but Pondexter followed with a three-pointer and Vaughn had a turnaround jumper to push the Liberty's lead to eight with 3 minutes to go in the period. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Read this article: <\/p>\n
Carson, Pondexter help carry Liberty past Storm<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NEWARK, N.J. Continue reading