NEWARK, N.J. – Essence Carson scored 22 points, and Cappie Pondexter had 20 to lead the New York Liberty to a 77-59 victory over the Seattle Storm on Saturday.
DeMya Walker added 11 points for New York (5-9), which had lost four of its previous five.
“It was a big win, a much-needed win,” Pondexter said.
Ann Wauters and Tina Thompson scored 10 points each for Seattle (6-8), which snapped a five-game winning streak.
The Storm shot 32 percent from the field (19-for-59), including 4-for-22 on 3-pointers.
Seattle also had 25 turnovers – the most for the Storm since having 27 in the season opener against Los Angeles – which led to 20 points for the Liberty.
“We turned the ball over way too much,” said Seattle guard Sue Bird, who finished with nine points. “For us especially it’s a bad thing because when we get our defense set we’re a much better team. They were able to get out on transition, get easy buckets. We hadn’t seen this in a while. It was uncharacteristic. We hadn’t played like this for a while. It was definitely disappointing.”
Bird’s third 3-pointer capped a 7-1 run that cut the Storm’s deficit to 56-48 heading to the fourth quarter.
Pondexter and Kara Braxton had consecutive layups to restore the Liberty’s double-digit lead, 65-52, with 6:17 to go. Seattle got no closer than 10 again.
“I didn’t think we were quite engaged defensively,” Storm coach Brian Agler said. “Earlier, I thought we were, but as the game progressed forward (the Liberty) were pretty much doing what they wanted to do. And when you turn the ball over 25 times, those are 25 possessions where they’re either scoring easily or you’re on your heels defensively.”
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