Hayes leads Dream past Storm

ATLANTA, Ga. - Tiffany Hayes is known more as a defensive player for the Atlanta Dream, as the team’s head coach Michael Cooper acknowledged after Friday’s game against the Seattle Storm. Despite that reputation for his second-year guard, Cooper couldn’t help but praise Hayes’ work on the offensive end in helping the Dream snap a brief losing streak.

Hayes surpassed her point total for the first four games of the season, scoring 20 to lead five starters in double figures in the Dream’s 90-79 victory at Philips Arena.

Atlanta (3-2) had lost two consecutive games coming into the night, but the defending Eastern Conference champions didn’t trail over the final five minutes to hand Seattle its fifth loss in six games to open the 2014 campaign.

“Tiffany is a defensive player (but) she was big for us (on the offensive end),” said Cooper.

The game was tied at 61-61 with a little over six minutes to go in the fourth when Atlanta made its decisive run. It started with two free throws and a field goal by Erika de Souza (14 points), part of an eight-point final period for the center from Brazil.

Crystal Langhorne led all scorers with 21 points, but the Seattle forward’s 1 of 2 trip to the line, which got the Storm as close as they would be the rest of the way at 65-62 at the 4:17 mark, was her first points since 5:39 remained in the third quarter. Angel McCoughtry, who had 12 of her 18 points and five of her eight assists in the second half, assisted on a basket by Sancho Lyttle (13 points) and McCoughtry’s pull-up jumper got the Dream going on a 15-7, game-ending run.

Seattle equaled its largest lead at 48-41 on a steal and lay up from Tanisha Wright with 5:15 to play in the third, and after Nicole Powell’s 3-pointer still held a 51-45 cushion. The Dream followed with a 12-0 spurt as McCoughtry scored five points and assisted on Lyttle’s run-capping basket that made it a 57-51 game with a minute to go in the period.

“Great teams have these 12-0 runs, and it happened to us in the third quarter,” said Cooper.

Seattle stayed close and Noelle Quinn’s 3 of 4 trip to the free-throw line evened things at 61-61 at the 6:20 mark.

Langhorne and Temeka Johnson carried the Storm in the opening half, helping the visitors take a 36-35 lead into the halftime locker room.

Langhorne, a sixth-year forward out of Maryland, picked up two quick field goals over a 35-second stretch, including a lay up off a pass from Johnson, and Seattle led 36-33. McCoughtry, the Dream’s leading scorer who was second in the WNBA in the category coming into the night, struggled in a 3 of 9 shooting, six-point first half, but her short jumper as time expired pulled the Dream to within one point at the break.

Late in the first, Lyttle and McCoughtry teamed up on three consecutive baskets with McCoughtry assisting on two Lyttle buckets and Lyttle returning the favor on a McCoughtry lay up. That was part of a 10-3 Dream run that put the hosts ahead 20-14 with 1:22 left.

It was a tight second quarter with the largest advantage coming at the 2:51 mark when Johnson, who was the only other Seattle player in double figures with 13 points, hit a jumper and the Storm led 27-23.

An 8-1 Atlanta run, aided by half of Hayes’ 12 first-half points, put the Dream up 31-28 with just under three minutes left until halftime.

Langhorne’s previous season-best was a 15-point effort May 23 against Connecticut. For Atlanta, Jasmine Thomas chipped in with 11 points.

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Larkins, January lead Fever past Dream

ATLANTA, Ga. - Eight days ago, the Indiana Fever had two chances to defeat the Atlanta Dream in overtime. Sunday at Philips Arena, the Fever controlled the extra session and as a result put an end to their winless start.

The Fever scored the first six points of overtime and four players scored in double figures in an 82-77 victory. Indiana snapped a three-game losing streak to start the season, which included an 90-88, double overtime loss at home to the Dream May 17. That day, the Fever missed a potential go-ahead 3-pointer in the first overtime and a potential winning three with a second to play in the second extra session. Sunday was a much different story.

Erlana Larkins and Briann January each converted a lay up and Sydney Carter hit a wild, banked-in jumper that made it 74-68 1:16 into overtime. Atlanta, the defending Eastern Conference champions which after starting the year 2-0 have dropped two straight, got to within 74-70 on the last of Jasmine Thomas’ 17 points. But another lay up, this time by Natasha Howard, and Larkins’ basket off a turnover gave the visitors some breathing room at 78-71 with 1:50 to go.

“(In overtime) I thought we were more fresh,” said Indiana coach Lin Dunn.

Larkins had a monster game on the boards, collecting a franchise-record 22 rebounds, two of which immediately proceeded a pair of 1 of 2 trips to the free-throw line and put Indiana ahead 80-74. With Atlanta climbing to within 80-77 late on a 3-pointer by the Dream’s leading scorer Angel McCoughtry (game-high 19 points), Carter hit two from the charity stripe to seal the road victory.

“We could’ve won the game in regulation if we had just hit our free throws,” said Dunn, whose team was 20 of 30 from the stripe in the first four quarters of play. “It was a real grind for each team to score.”

With just over four minutes to play in the fourth quarter, McCoughtry nailed a 3-pointer that gave Atlanta its first lead since six and a half minutes remained in the third at 68-66.

January (team-high 16 points) had a beautiful, reverse lay up to even things up at 68-68 at the two-minute mark. Those were the last points of regulation, though Carter had a chance to give Indiana the lead with 1:18 to play, but missed two free throws, and Thomas missed a lay up with 27 seconds left, while the Dream’s final shot, taken by McCoughtry with 2.8 seconds left, wasn’t close.

It was no more than a five-point cushion for Indiana for nearly the entire third quarter until Karima Christmas capped a quick, 6-0 run with a three-point play that put the visitors ahead 63-55 at the 1:12 mark.

Thomas polished off a fine stretch as the third-year guard from Duke had a three-point play and a long jumper in the corner for five of her 11 third-quarter points that got the Dream to within 64-60 heading into the final period.

Atlanta led by as much as five points in the opening quarter and still led 23-19 after an Erika de Souza lay up 15 seconds into the second quarter.

The Dream went three and a half minutes without a point, and Indiana’s 9-0 run - three different players made baskets including January’s 3-pointer during the spurt - and the Fever led 28-23 with 6:20 to go in the half.

Thanks in large part to Sancho Lyttle, who had a pair of jumpers as part of a 10-point opening half, Atlanta took the lead back briefly at 31-30 with four minutes to go. Indiana reasserted itself over the final stretch of the half getting a 3-pointer from January and Larkins’ conventional three-point play to go into the halftime locker room up 39-35.

The Fever will host Connecticut Thursday, while Atlanta entertains Seattle Friday at 7:30 p.m.

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