By E. Marcel Pourtout, Editor
The Atlanta Dream came into Sunday’s contest off of its first loss of the season the night before in Chicago and hosting an Indiana Fever team that hadn’t won a game. Behind a game-high 22 rebounds and 13 points from Eriana Larkins, the Fever (1-3) emerged with an 82-77 over the Dream (2-2) at Philips Arena.
With the Fever holding a 66-65 lead with less than four minutes left in the contest, Atlanta looked to take take control of the game when Angel McCoughtry hit a three-pointer from the top of the key, giving the Dream the lead. McCoughtry finished with a team-high 19 points along with six rebounds.
The Fever scored the final points of regulation to tie the score at 68-68 on a reverse layup by Briann January with a minute left in the contest. She scored a team-high 16 points for Indiana.
Atlanta came out sluggish in the overtime frame, allowing the Fever to score on its first three possessions on shots by Larkins, January and Sydney Carter, who had 14 points off the bench for the road team.
“Indiana is a very good team that’s committed,” Atlanta head coach Michael Cooper said. “I think fatigue caught up with us but we can’t use it as an excuse. We get a few things to work on the next few days.”
The Dream return to action on Friday night at home against the Seattle Storm.
Despite both teams finishing the contest with 37 total rebounds, Indiana was able to control that portion of the game with 15 offensive rebounds and outscored Atlanta in second-chance points, 17-9. Indiana also converted on six three-pointers while Atlanta only managed to make three out of 15 attempts from long distance.
Four Dream players scored in double-figures, including McCoughtry, Jasmine Thomas (17), Sancho Lyttle (15) and Erica DeSouza with 14 points along with a team-high nine rebounds. Rookie Shoni Schimmel had a team-high eight assists for Atlanta.
The third quarter was the highest scoring period of the contest with each teams scoring 25 points and Indiana taking a 64-60 lead into the fourth quarter.
The first quarter saw both teams shoot a high percentage from the field with the Fever posting 53.8 percent while the Dream was at 57.1. Indiana led 21-19 heading into the second quarter.
The Fever opened the second quarter on an 8-2 run to take a 27-23 lead. Indiana didn’t relinquished the advantage the rest of the frame and took a 39-35 lead at halftime.
Natasha Howard led the Fever with 10 first-half points. Larkins also grabbed a game-high nine rebounds in the first half for Indiana. The Fever outrebounded Atlanta 15-9 in the half. Little had a team-high 10 first-half points while McCoughtry had nine. Atlanta missed all five of its three-pointer attempts in the first half while Indiana converted on five three-pointers out of 10 attempts.
The Sports Inquirer 
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