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Pondexter, Vaughn lead Liberty to East finals

NEW YORK (AP) Cappie Pondexter scored 30 points, including a tiebreaking jumper with 28 seconds remaining, to lead the New York Liberty to a 77-74 victory over the Indiana Fever on Wednesday night to advance to the Eastern Conference finals.
Kia Vaughn took advantage of some extended playing time and scored a season-high 13 points, and Essence Carson added 11 as the Liberty reached the conference finals for the second time in three years.
Katie Douglas scored 24 points, Tamika Catchings had 21 and Ebony Hoffman added 13 for the Fever, who fell to 0-7 in postseason series in which they didn't have home-court advantage.
The Liberty will face Atlanta in the East finals beginning Sunday night at Madison Square Garden.
After Pondexter made her go-ahead jumper from the right side of the basket while going out of bounds, Catchings missed a driving layup 4 seconds later and Taj McWilliams-Franklin grabbed the rebound off the side of the rim.
The Liberty called timeout, but were called for a 5-second violation on the ensuing inbounds play, turning the ball over to the Fever. Catchings missed another layup with 12.9 seconds to go, McWilliams-Franklin again corralled the rebound and passed to Vaughn, who was fouled by Douglas. Vaughn then made 1 of 2 free throws to extend the Liberty's lead to three points.
January missed a potential tying 3 with 3.9 seconds left.
New York was without starting center Janel McCarville, sidelined by a sprained left ankle. Plenette Pierson started in her place, and Vaughn played a season-high 26 minutes.
Trailing by five earlier in the fourth quarter, the Liberty rallied in the low-scoring period and took a 74-72 lead on Pondexter's three-point play with 1:14 remaining.
Hoffman rebounded her own missed layup and put it back to tie the score 24 seconds later.
Douglas scored nine points in the third quarter - on two 3s and three free throws - as the Fever, who led by one at halftime, increased their advantage to seven points on three occasions. The last time came when Catchings made 1 of 2 free throws to make it 66-59 with 1 1/2 minutes left in the period.
Pondexter had a layup about 15 seconds later and McWilliams-Franklin had a basket with under 32 seconds left to pull the Liberty to 66-63 heading to the fourth quarter.
Pondexter had a four-point play to give the Liberty a 32-28 lead with about 7:48 remaining in the first half. She hit two free throws less than four minutes later to extend New York's advantage to 42-36.
The Fever scored the final six points of the second quarter, capped by Douglas' two free throws with 41 seconds left, to take a 47-46 lead at the break.
Douglas scored six points to help Indiana get off to a fast start and take a 19-11 lead over the first 6 1/2 minutes.
Pondexter and Vaughn had two baskets each to pull the Liberty to 21-19 with about 1 1/2 minutes to go in the opening period.
Trailing by seven points in the final minute of the first quarter, the Liberty scored nine consecutive points to take a 28-26 lead on Vaughn's jumper with 8:20 to go in the second period.
Copyright 2010 by STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited

Series Preview: New York Liberty (2) vs. Atlanta Dream (4)

The dream season continues for Atlanta. The reality though is the Liberty hope to wake them up.
The Eastern Conference Finals is set after the New York Liberty (22-12) knocked off the Indiana Fever, 77-74, in the deciding Game 3 of the semifinals on Wednesday. They'll take on the Atlanta Dream (19-15) in the best-of-three series beginning Sunday at Madison Square Garden.
The fourth-seeded Dream come into this meeting well rested. They've been off since Aug. 27 after making quick work of the Washington Mystics in their semifinals matchup. Atlanta's uptempo style was too much for the Mystics, who had won three of the four prior meetings this season. The Dream averaged 98 points in the series, while Angel McCoughtry contributed a quarter of those with around 24 a night. In last Friday's win, each one of the 10 players on the Dream roster posted points in the box score, while three (Iziane Castro Marques, Sancho Lyttle and McCoughtry) had at least 20.
Atlanta is dangerous on both sides of the floor. They're the league's second-most potent offense -- their 98 ppg was only second to the Phoenix Mercury's 99 -- and their defense, especially on the boards, is outstanding. The Dream's 43 rebounds a night was best by five ahead of the Mercury in 2010. The number-two seeded Liberty will have to use Taj McWilliams-Franklin, Janel McCarville and their other interior players to prevent Atlanta's bigs, Erika de Souza (12.4 ppg, 8.3 rpg.) and Lyttle (14 ppg., 9.5 rpg.), from hanging around the rim.
Gm 1: at New York, Sun., 9/5, 7 p.m. ET, NBA TV
Gm 2: at Atlanta, Tues., 9/7, 7:30 p.m. ET, NBA TV
Gm 3*: at New York, Thur., 9/9, 7:30 p.m. ET, NBA TV
New York, meanwhile, is one of the league's hottest teams. They won 15 of their last 18 games to end the regular season, which helped propel them up the East standings and into a tie with Washington for the conference's best record. Much of this success has to be attributed to the play of Cappie Pondexter (21.4 ppg), the league's second leading scorer. Pondexter not only put the ball in the hoop, but she distributed it as well, ranking sixth in assists (4.9). Her 30 points on Wednesday, including a clutch two-pointer near the end of regulation, was the difference maker for the Liberty in that tight contest.
On the injury front, it's unknown whether McCarville will miss any part of the series against Atlanta. McCarville grabbed 19 boards over the first two games against Indiana, before sitting out the third with an ankle injury. Plenette Pierson or Kia Vaughn will likely take her place in the lineup if she can't go.
New York has also seen a surge in offense from reserve guard Essense Carson. The Rutgers product averaged just 3.7 points this season, but tallied 20 in Game One, 17 in Game Two and 13 in Game Three for the Liberty. Carson's play, without a doubt, was one of the reasons the Liberty were able to get past a strong, defensive team like the Fever.
While the Eastern Conference Finals is new territory for the Dream -- this is their first trip since the team's 2008 inaugural season -- the Liberty are experts, almost. With four trips to the Finals and 10 to the playoffs, they're still looking for their first title. New York's last playoff appearance came in 2008 when they lost in the conference finals to the Detroit Shock in three. Loree Moore, Leilani Mitchell, Carson and McCarville were all part of that year's squad. McWilliams-Franklin, meanwhile, was on the Shock, which went on to win in the Finals over the San Antonio Silver Stars.
The limelight of big-city basketball is on for both of these teams. Whichever one prevails will be one step closer to the ultimate goal. That's nothing to sleep on.

2010 Regular Season: New York 2, Atlanta 2
Some fast facts about the Eastern Conference Finals matchup:
* The Liberty have been to six conference finals and are 3-3 in those series
* Cappie Pondexter averaged 25.7 ppg against the Dream this season. Her average in Philips Arena was 28.5 ppg.
* Atlanta has never played the same Eastern Conference team in the playoffs out of the three series they've taken part in
* The Dream haven't played since Aug. 27. Angel McCoughtry averaged 28 points with three-plus days rest in 2010
Friday, May 23, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY: Dream 86, Liberty 77 | Box score
Atlanta Leaders: Angel McCoughtry (21 pts., 6 ast., 4 reb.), Erika de Souza (15 pts., 10 reb., 3 blk.)
New York Leaders: Cappie Pondexter (21 pts., 5 ast., 4 reb.), Janel McCarville (16 pts., 9 reb., 4 ast.)
Friday, June 11, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY: Liberty 91, Dream 79 | Box score
New York Leaders: Cappie Pondexter (25 pts., 7 ast., 3 reb.), Taj McWilliams-Franklin (10 pts., 6 reb. 3 ast.)
Atlanta Leaders: Erika de Souza (21 pts., 10 reb., 1 blk.), Sancho Lyttle (15 pts., 14 reb.)
Sunday, July 25, Philips Arena, Atlanta, GA: Dream 82, Liberty 75 | Box score | Highlights
Atlanta Leaders: Angel McCoughtry (28 pts., 10 reb. 6 ast.), Erika de Souza (14 pts., 10 reb. 2 ast.)
New York Leaders: Cappie Pondexter (26 pts., 6 ast., 3 reb.), Plenette Pierson (12 pts., 6 reb., 1 blk.)
Friday, August 13, Philips Arena, Atlanta, GA: Liberty 90, Dream 83 | Box score
New York Leaders: Cappie Pondexter (31 pts., 6 ast., 5 reb.), Leilani Mitchell (15 pts., 2 reb.)
Atlanta Leaders: Erika de Souza (21 pts., 11 reb. 1 blk.) Angel McCoughtry (22 pts., 4 ast., 3 reb.)