NEW YORK (AP) — Cappie Pondexter scored 25 points to lead the New York Liberty to a 91-79 victory over the first-place Atlanta Dream on Friday night.
Leilani Mitchell had 11 points and Janel McCarville and Taj McWilliams-Franklin added 10 each for the Liberty (4-4), who have won consecutive games for the first time this season.
Erika De Souza scored 11 of her 21 points in the fourth quarter and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Dream (7-3). Iziane Castro Marques had 17 points, Sancho Lyttle added 15 points and 14 rebounds, and Angel McCoughtry 12 points.
Atlanta, which came in last in the league in free-throw shooting at 66 percent, finished 11 for 21 (52 percent).
Trailing by 15 after three quarters, the Dream appeared to play with some urgency in the fourth. Armintie Price and Lyttle had two baskets each as Atlanta scored the first eight points of the quarter to pull to 70-63 with 6:21 to go.
Kia Vaughn ended New York's scoring drought 15 seconds later with two field goals.
De Souza made consecutive layups, the second after Castro Marques saved the ball from going out of bounds under the basket and threw it back to De Souza, who scored to pull Atlanta to 72-67 with 5:17 left.
However, Nicole Powell hit a 3-pointer — New York's first field goal of the fourth — with 4:42 to go to push the lead back to eight. Leilani Mitchell beat the shot clock with a 3 to extend the Liberty's lead to 80-70 with 3:15 left, and Atlanta got no closer than seven again.
The Dream scored six straight points to pull to 46-44 with just under 7 minutes left in the third quarter.
The Liberty then began pulling away. Pondexter followed with a 3, and then Powell made two consecutive baskets to push the lead back up to seven with under 6 minutes left.
Kalana Greene's jumper with 4 minutes left in the third stretched New York's advantage to 57-49.
The Liberty closed the quarter with an 11-2 run to seemingly put the game out of reach. Sidney Spencer started it with a 3 to push the lead to nine with 1:43 left. Pondexter's three-point play made it 65-53 with 45 seconds to go, and Spencer's third 3 of the game beat the third-quarter buzzer and gave New York its biggest lead of the game, 70-55.
Pondexter scored seven points as the Liberty got off to a fast start, taking a 17-6 lead with 4:39 to go in the first quarter.
Atlanta, which missed eight of its first 11 shots, scored the next six points. Castro Marques had consecutive baskets to pull the Dream to 17-13 with 2:16 to go in the first.
Greene's jumper beat the halftime buzzer to give the Liberty a 41-34 lead at the break. Pondexter led New York with 15 points and Castro Marques had 10 for the Dream.
