After getting blown out in their last game two days earlier, Liberty coach Bill Laimbeer expected a much better effort from his team and he got it. For the most part.
Plenette Pierson scored nine of her 22 points in the fourth quarter as the Liberty recovered after giving up nearly all of a 19-point lead in the third quarter and beat the Seattle Storm 66-57 on Tuesday night at the Prudential Center. Pierson came off the bench for the fourth straight game and shot 8 for 15 from the field and 6 for 8 on free throws.
“Before the game I thought we were in a better place today,” Laimbeer said. “Our legs were with us from yesterday. Sunday we just weren’t with it. … We just played awful. I thought we would come out and play a little better [Tuesday night] and we did.”
The Liberty (6-7) were coming off a 29-point loss at home to Chicago on Sunday, their third straight defeat and fifth in the previous six games.
Laimbeer also made a lineup change, starting Cappie Pondexter at point guard for the first time this season. She finished with 13 points on 5-for-19 shooting from the field and had eight rebounds and four assists.
Laimbeer said he had been thinking about the change for a while.
“I wanted to see it now, I don’t want to wait until the end of the year,” he said. “I think in the long-term, whether the long-term is this year or for sure next year, I think that is her position. I think she learned in the last few games, in games that were out of control. Tonight she did very well in her first time.
“She didn’t shoot well, but I think she’s thinking more about other things. I’ll get her back on thinking about scoring, too. But I thought for the most part she did pretty well handling the ball. She pushes the ball really well.”
Pondexter got off to a slow scoring start and didn’t have any points until hitting a 3-pointer near midway through the second quarter. She missed her first four shots, including a last-second heave from more than three-quarters court at the end of the first quarter.
Nevertheless, Pondexter said she also was pleased with the way she ran the offense.
“I got everybody involved,” she said. “We pushed the ball up the floor, the tempo was great. … I was happy with our energy level from the beginning to the end of the game.”
Tina Thompson scored 13 points and Tanisha Wright added 12 for the Storm (5-8), losers of five of their last six. Seattle lost three of four on a road swing against Eastern Conference teams. Seattle, which bounced back from 14 points down in the first quarter of a victory at Chicago on July 2, trailed by 17 after one quarter last night.
“We’ve been having poor starts for a while now,” Thompson said. “It’s something we’re going to have to find a solution to. As the game continues to go, we get better, we’re playing more efficient and executing. At the beginning of the game we’re having rough starts. … If we had an answer we probably would have fixed it by now.”