Connect with us
Tina Charles

(Double G Media, LLC – Tina Charles)

Tina Charles saved her best performance as a Liberty, when the team needed it the most. Tina Charles scored a career-high 36 points, 11 of which came in the 4th quarter, as the New York Liberty (3-3) held off the Dallas Wings (3-3) 93-89 on Friday night at The Garden.

Charles didn’t come out taking every shot the way she did Tuesday night against the Sparks. The result seemed to be a more energetic Charles into the fourth quarter. A three-pointer she sank with less than three minutes to go gave her the career high mark. That she had the legs for it spoke volumes about how judiciously the Liberty used her.

“She’s got a lot of quality games under her belt,” Liberty Head coach Bill Laimbeer said, “It was a win we needed and she willed us down the stretch and made some really big baskets. But that’s her job.”

The Well Balance Attack Of The New York Liberty

New York (3-3) was missing Epiphanny Prince and Kia Vaughn, who are both playing in the EuroBasket tournament this month. That didn’t stop the short handed Liberty from spreading the wealth around.  Shavonte Zellous posted her first 20-point game as a member of the Liberty, finishing with 27 points, the most since she posted a career-high 33 on June 25, 2014. In all, the Liberty had 4 players score in double figures. Kiah Stokes set a new career-high of 15 rebounds to go along with 13 points. Bria Hartley nailed a pair of 3-pointers to finish with 10 points.

The Wings Allisha Gray, May’s Rookie of the Month, put up a strong fight, bringing the fire and attacking at-will. She was the third highest scorer on her team with 15 points on the board. Dallas stayed on the attack with Skylar Diggins-Smith and Theresa Plaisance putting up 19 and 18 points, respectively.

Liberty Were In a Dog Fight To The End

It was a nail-biter through the final buzzer, with the Liberty up most of the fourth quarter and the Wings trailing not far behind. New York made critical shots to put them up by four in the final seconds of the game.

“If we lost this game,” Laimbeer said, “especially in the end when we had the game won, that would have been a heart- stopping moment. We would have to dig deep to get out of that one.”

All around it was a good team effort as defense once again took center stage with New York out rebounding Dallas 43-18 and holding the Wings to 41 percent shooting. The Liberty finished the game shooting at 50 percent and spread the ball around, with 20 assists as a team.

The Liberty returns to action on Sunday, June 4, when it hosts the Phoenix Mercury at Madison Square Garden at 3 PM.

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

More in Basketball