New York advances to East Finals

The New York Liberty advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals Wednesday night with a 77-74 win over the Indiana Fever. With Janel McCarville out of the game with a sprained ankle, the Liberty’s bench came up big and helped the team conquer the Fever in front of 16,682 fans at Madison Square Garden.

Physical play throughout the game had the teams battling until the last minute.

“Typical Indiana-New York matchup where it’s just grueling and physical and no one is giving up anything easy,” said Liberty head coach Anne Dononvan. “It’s a battle…it’s a great team that we just beat and they could be there down the road so I give them a lot of credit…We feel very fortunate to have home court advantage.  Our fans were phenomenal.”

At halftime, Indiana led New York by one point, 47-46. The Fever’s Tamika Catchings and Katie Douglas went into the break with 15 points each. For New York, Cappie Pondexter had 19 points at halftime.

The Liberty managed to take the lead early in the third quarter at the 9:16 mark but the Fever fought back. A couple of lead changes came within minutes of each other before the Indiana managed to stay ahead of New York for the remainder of the quarter.

Early in the fourth quarter Pondexter scored to get the Liberty within one point but Ebony Hoffman came right back with a trey and to make the score 68-65. However, the tams remained close and Liberty took the lead at the 1:14 mark behind a shot a free throw from Pondexter. However right afterwards, Ebony Hoffman quickly scored and the game was tied at 74 with 50 seconds left in the game.
After a timeout, Pondexter penetrated the Fever’s defense, drove to the basket making an awkward shot giving New York a two point lead with 27.0 left on the clock. It was her 30th point, a Liberty playoff record.

“All-star players step up…this is their time of year,” said Donovan of Pondexter. “Marquee players and MVP players…this is their spotlight time and Cappie did that again tonight.”

New York’s Kia Vaughn had a personal playoff record of 13 points and Essence Carson added 11.

Fever head coach Lin Dunn was not happy with the officiating in the final stretch of the game especially when a foul on Catchings was not called in the last minute of the matchup.

After criticizing the officiating in the post game press conference Dunn said “they can go ahead and fine me.”

For the Fever, Douglas finished with 24 points, Tamika Catchings added 21 and Ebony Hoffman had 13.

The Liberty face the Atlanta Dream on Sunday, September 5^th at 7pm. The game will be televised on NBA TV.

New York Liberty Quotes

Coach Anne Donovan

On Kia Vaughn:

“I’m so happy for her.  There is nobody that has worked harder this year and not really seen the results.  Last game, I thought she had good minutes at Indiana which fortunately gave her confidence coming into the game tonight and with Janel [McCarville] out, we had to have her in the rotation.  I think she surprised herself with how well she played and I know she surprised Indiana.”

More on tonight’s game and the season:

“We’ve had Cappie [Pondexter] who has led the way…she’s been our mainstay and MVP and we had other players step up.  Tonight was not Nicole Powell’s night but Essence [Carson] did a great job stepping in there and that’s the beauty of this team.  It’s great to see a team win like this.”

Kia Vaughn

On her play:

“Tammy and Ebony and Jessica Davenport, they’re all aggressive and that’s how they are, so I just knew that I had to come out there and be aggressive. I’m a strong girl…I knew I had to be aggressive and push them around and basically be the one to go out there and do it first.”

Cappie Pondexter

On the 2010 Liberty team:

“I’ve been on two championship teams and one common thing is togetherness. No matter if you’re the most talented team or what and that’s one special thing that we have this season.”

On Kia Vaughn:

“She’s amazing, her whole career I’ve never seen Kia play like that and if she didn’t play like that then we definitely wouldn’t be advancing to the next round. I told Kia this is a special opportunity for her. She’s been battling in her mind all year. She’s been in and out of rotation, some games she plays some games she doesn’t and I told her this is the perfect opportunity for her to step up and show the world who she is. And today she definitely did. This is her birthday I think and I think we’ll see more of that. ”

On her performance:

“I live for moments like these as a basketball player. When I’m in the gym working out I think about moments like this to prepare myself mentally. In my mind, that’s all it’s about. It’s mind over matter in all situations and I just took it upon myself to take over. And I love having the last shot.”

Indiana Fever Quotes

Head Coach Lin Dunn

On tonight’s game:

“It was a hard fought game.  We had two teams fighting for their life out there.  I thought we did everything we needed to do down the stretch to pull out a win on the road.  I was very disappointed that Eric (Brewton), Denise (Brooks), and Lamont (Simpson) did not call a foul when Tamika (Catchings) drove to the rim the first time and the second time.  I really thought she was fouled both times.  It’s unfortunate that the players did not get to finish the game on their own.  What we needed to do was get the ball forward and attack the rim.  We have to give them credit.  They stepped up big at crunch time and got some help from their bench.  I thought Kia (Vaughn) was big for them filling in and Plenette (Pierson).  It was a great game.”   

Tamika Catchings

On Kia Vaughn:

“I thought Kia did great.  She came out obviously with Janel (McCarville) out.  Somebody had to step up.  She was all over the boards, offensively and defensively.  I thought she had a really good game with them.  In order for them to keep winning she has to keep stepping up like that.”

Katie Douglas

On tonight’s game:

“I just thought it was a battle that both teams were playing to win and it was just overall an incredible game for women’s basketball.  You could see that neither team wanted to lose and go home.  I’m just proud of the way that we fought.”