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Friday, Jun. 23 8:00pm ET
69, 60 | |||||
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BOX SCORE
INDIANAPOLIS (Ticker) -- Becky Hammon scored 16 points off the bench as she and Teresa Weatherspoon each made four free throws in the last four minutes and the New York Liberty survived a furious comeback by the Indiana Fever for a 69-60 victory. Weatherspoon drilled a jumper with 15:56 left as New York opened a 45-25 cushion. But the Fever roared back with an 18-4 spurt and got within 49-43 with 10:49 to play. Kara Wolters and Rita Williams each scored five points and Monica Maxwell capped the spurt with a layup. Williams made a layup with 5:22 remaining as Indiana closed to 56-54, but Hammon and Weatherspoon each went 4-of-4 from the line over the final 3:54 as New York recorded its third straight road win. "We got within two and not to make an excuse, but I think it took a lot out of us," Maxwell said. "We got down too deep and had to fight back with a pressure defense. We've got to get out front early." Vickie Johnson scored 13 points, Crystal Robinson added 11 and Weatherspoon 10 for the Liberty (5-6), who have alternated wins and losses over the last 10 games. Sue Wicks grabbed 10 rebounds, helping the Liberty to a 38-29 advantage on the boards. "We panicked a little bit after a couple of their 3s and quick steals, but I felt Becky came in against the press and helped us keep our composure," Liberty coach Richie Adubato said. "We had two people sick tonight with Wicks and Johnson both having a touch of the flu. I had planned to only play them about five minutes each, but you can look at the boxscore and see that I was not able to do that." Despite their poor record, the Liberty are only 1 1/2 games behind first-place Cleveland in the Eastern Conference. New York is 3-3 away from home and had not won three in a row on the road since a four-game run from July 18-August 1, 1998. Maxwell finished with 15 points and Wolters added 13 for Indiana, which has lost three straight and six of its last seven games. The expansion Fever have dropped four in a row at Conseco Fieldhouse and are 1-5 here. Indiana shot a season-worst 31 percent (20-of-65) from the field and was just 4-of-19 from 3-point range before a crowd of 13,178 -- its largest ever. New York bolted to a 30-14 lead with 4:30 left in the first half, thanks to an 18-7 run. Tamika Whitmore scored five points, Hammon drilled a 3-pointer and Weatherspoon capped the spurt with a jumper. "We knew we had to come out aggressive in the first because this team is very aggressive and has a lot of pride," Weatherspoon said. "They're very young, tough and athletic, but we had enough composure down the stretch to pull out the win." The Liberty shot 52 percent (16-of-31) and drilled 3-of-5 from beyond the arc in the first half to gain a 36-20 cushion. Indiana hit just 19 percent (5-of-26) of its shots and missed all eight of its 3-pointers. | ALSO SEE WNBA Scoreboard RECAPS Los Angeles 68 Miami 54
New York 69 AUDIO/VIDEO   Liberty's Becky Hammon scores with an underhand lay in.avi: 511 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 Becky Hammon pulls up and shoots for two of her sixteen points.avi: 462 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 Indiana's Kara Walters puts in the big sky hook.avi: 481 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 | |||||