NEW YORK (AP)—The New York Liberty got off to a fast start and then used a strong finish to pull away from the Seattle Storm. Shameka Christon matched a career high with 25 points and led the Liberty to a 77-63 victory over the Storm on Tuesday night.
Christon was 9-for-14 from the floor, including 4-for-6 on 3-pointers, and scored 15 in the second half to help the Liberty (2-3) recover after Seattle cut an early 16-point deficit to two at halftime.
“We know they’re a good team,” Christon said. “Of course we dominated the first quarter. You can’t expect a team like that to not to pick it up. Our thing was to come out (in the second half) as if the score was 0-0 and play hard.”
Janel McCarville added 12 points for New York, which had lost five straight meetings against the Storm.
“We came out with a lot of intensity, playing defense and making them turn the ball over, getting stops on the defensive end and our shots falling on the other end,” said Christon, who leads the Liberty in scoring at 15.6 points per game. “It helped that our best defense was them taking the ball out of the net and us being able to set up in our defense.”
Lauren Jackson scored 19 points, Sheryl Swoopes had 15 points and nine rebounds, and Sue Bird added 10 points for Seattle (5-2).
After scoring just six points in the first quarter, the Storm had 30 in the second and pulled within two on Bird’s jumper with 1.8 seconds left before halftime. Seattle tied the score at 38 on Jackson’s layup 46 seconds into the third quarter, and Bird’s layup with 3:54 left in the period gave the Storm their first lead, 44-43.
“We just need to get out to a better start,” Bird said. “Against good teams, especially on the road, you can’t let them jump on you like the Liberty did to us tonight.”
The Liberty moved back ahead for good 15 seconds later on Christon’s three-point play. Rookie Erlana Larkins hit two free throws with 1:33 to go in the third, and Ashley Battle added two more 29 seconds later to push New York’s advantage to 54-48 heading into the fourth.
After Bird’s 3 pulled Seattle to 57-53, the Liberty scored nine consecutive points in a 2:02 span to stretch their lead to 13 on Cathrine Kraayeveld’s 3 with 6:11 to go.
“I think this is the first time we put together four pretty good quarters,” New York coach Pat Coyle said. “That’s something we looked at, the tape, and something we talked about”
The Liberty shot 46 percent from the field (28-for-61), including 9-for-23 on 3s.
Seattle committed a season-high 23 turnovers that led to 27 points for New York.
“Tonight’s turnovers were a result of both us not being as sharp as we could be, and New York being very aggressive,” Storm coach Brian Agler said. “They caused a lot of them. I don’t think we read the defense well at times, I think we were careless with the ball at times, and I think we got in a hurry at times.”
The Storm trailed 22-6 after the first quarter, their third double-digit first-half deficit this season and their lowest scoring period. Seattle was 2-for-8 from the field and 1-for-4 from the line in the quarter.
” It seemed like everything was going their way,” Bird siad. “They were getting loose balls, things like that.”
The six points allowed in the first were the fewest against the Liberty in any quarter this season.
Seattle scored seven points in just 1:45 in the second, pulling to 24-13 on Swoopes’ driving layup. The Storm’s second 7-0 run of the second quarter pulled them to 30-26 on Tanisha Wright’s jumper with 3:46 left in the period.
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