Indiana Fever 98, New York Liberty 77

September 1, 2016 - Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) - Indiana Fever News Release





KEY STAT:

- The Fever tied the WNBA record for points in a quarter with 40 points in the opening period as the Fever shot 13-for-23 from the field and 6-for-7 from three-point range in the first quarter.

- Indiana's 63 first-half points also marks the highest scoring total in any half in franchise history.

- Indiana finished with a season-high 98 points, improving the team's record to 7-0 this season when scoring 90 or more points.

KEY RUN:

- Marissa Coleman scored the game's first seven points as the Fever, who led wire-to-wire, jumped out to an early 12-2 lead. Later in the first, the Fever scored nine unanswered points to push their lead to 40-16 late in the first quarter.

- New York would not trail by fewer than 15 points the rest of the night.

INDIANA NOTES:

- Indiana's 14 three-point field goals made marks a new season high and the second-highest total in franchise history (15, vs. Connecticut, 6/21/2012).

- Indiana led by as many as 32 points (78-46, 3:25 third quarter) and by 25 at halftime (63-38), both season-high margins.

- Shenise Johnson set a new career high with 21 points and she shot 6-for-10 from the field, 3-for-5 from long distance and 6-for-6 from the foul line.

- Johnson finished with 10 points in the first quarter and was perfect from the field, shooting 2-for-2 from three-point range and 4-for-4 from the free throw line.

- Coleman finished with a season-high 19 points. She tied her best regular season output as a member of the Fever with four three-point field goals, including two in the opening quarter.

- Tamika Catchings finished with 14 points and led Indiana with nine rebounds. With seven games to play, Catchings now needs 29 rebounds to pass Lisa Leslie (3,307) as the WNBA's all-time leading rebounder.

- Indiana finished with 25 assists on 31 field goals, their 11th game this season with 20 or more assists (9-2 record).

- The Fever held New York to a season-low 36.8 percent shooting from the field, only the second game this season Indiana has held an opponent to under 40 percent shooting.

NEW YORK NOTES:

- Tina Charles led the Liberty with game highs of 22 points, 11 rebounds and six assists. She has now posted 15 double-doubles this season.

- New York guard Brittany Boyd was the only other Liberty player in double figures with 10 points. Boyd also set a new career high with eight rebounds.

SERIES NOTES:

- The Fever and Liberty split the regular season series, 2-2.

- Indiana has now won eight of the last nine regular season home games over New York.

- The Fever lead the overall series, 41-24, with a 24-8 record over the Liberty at home.

Quoting Fever Head Coach Stephanie White

"It was good to get out and run a little bit - and see some shots go down for us. More than just needing the win, we needed to get back to playing like we can. That was a big win for us. We were explosive early, and it's something we wanted to do. The good start gave us some energy, I thought, and it fed everything we did. I was proud of our 25 assists on 31 made baskets - I say this after every game - 'when we move the ball, we're a really good team; and a tough team to guard.' We moved the ball and got high percentage shots that weren't contested. Any time you get higher percentage shots, the odds are you're going to make more of them. We played the way we know we could. We got ourselves a big lead, and we knew it was important not to let up."

"The last two games were frustrating. We knew we were better. We thought we let each other down the last two games. We wanted to lift each other up."

(On changing the starting lineup): "It's called luck! I had wanted to start Erica [Wheeler]. Part of the reason was to get off to a better start. We wanted to push the pace. Things just took off from there, and it was great to see Marissa [Coleman] get her shot back. And coming off the bench didn't impact Shenise [Johnson]. Sometimes you make changes and they don't work out. And I don't ever think that my coaching decisions ever make anyone play better. They won this game because they played with heart and energy."

Quoting Liberty Head Coach Bill Laimbeer

"(What was the Fever doing offensively in the first quarter that gave you guys trouble?) Making shots. They made a lot of shots. It was an important game for them to have a comeback after the last two losses. And they canned their shots. (Is it difficult to prepare for a team fighting for a playoff spot when you're more secure in the standings?) Well we're a little banged up right now. We had three players out tonight, which caused us some problems. They (the Fever) played very well in the first quarter. (How important is it to finish strong even though you knew you weren't going to win?) Well we want to play every game strong. We're a new team right now. We have to learn about each other. We have to see what we can and cannot do as a group. So today was a good learning experience, got a lot of stuff on films. We don't play zone, we played a lot of zone today."

Quoting the Fever's Marissa Coleman

"I think it was a great way to bounce back after those two disappointing losses. We're at our best when we're moving the ball, we're playing together and we're playing up tempo."

Quoting the Fever's Shenise Johnson

"I thought we did a great job of taking New York out of their comfort zone. I thought our defense was great. Anytime Tina (Charles) shot a shot it was contested. I think she might have had one open two. And she pretty much makes the engine go. With Tanisha Wright being out it kind of took the head off of the beast and made it a lot easier for us. Offensively, I thought we did a great job playing together. Spacing was on point and that's really something that we wanted to focus on coming into the game."

Quoting the Liberty's Tina Charles

"We have players that were playing different roles. I like to think we're not a team that likes to make excuses for ourselves. I think all season long we've been able to play collective. I think you can see when I was away at the Olympics that they had a great month off. They were able to put together plays, defenses, build confidence without me. So I don't like to make excuses for the fact that we know Indy came in and just gave us a beat down. We were just on the fence."

Quoting the Liberty's Epiphany Prince

"(On coming back from injury) I'm just trying to get my rhythm and get back in game shape. (What's the hardest part of defense after injury?) Making sure that I'm using my butt and everything, because I have to push off this leg a lot and just more than anything I just can't be scared to do it. (On her confidence) I think with every game, every practice, every drill I do it will just come back to me."

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