The Liberty entered the day in third place in the Eastern Conference, good for a playoff spot. They ended the day in fifth place, on the outside looking in.
Unable to stop a prolific Indiana offense, suffering a 90-76 defeat at the Garden, the Liberty put a damper on their playoff chances.
“We’ve been playing with fire a little bit for a period of time where we have our moments where we just don’t play with the intensity necessary, and it caught up to us in the first half,” Liberty head coach Bill Laimbeer said.
The Liberty dropped to fifth place in the East, one half-game behind Chicago, who defeated conference-leading Atlanta at home, 80-69. Indiana and Chicago are tied for third place in the East.
At the game’s first media timeout, the Fever held a 14-10 lead, and it looked like a shootout was developing. However, that timeout was the last time the Liberty were within shouting distance for the next 30 minutes of game time.
Indiana (14-17) closed the quarter on a 10-2 run to take a twelve-point lead, and extended the lead from there. At one point in the second quarter, they held a 40-17 lead, having notched a 26-7 run over 9:53 of game time.
“They definitely wanted it more,” Liberty center Tina Charles (17 points) said. “They saw where they were in the playoff [race] and they wanted to get this one.”
En route to taking a 51-32 lead at halftime, the Fever blistered the Liberty defense, shooting 61 percent from the field in the first half and connecting on four of seven 3-pointers while recording 12 assists on 19 made field goals. Tamika Catchings led the charge, scoring 19 of her game-high 29 points in the first half.
Cappie Pondexter led the Liberty with 18 points, who have four games remaining in the regular season.