Catchings, Douglas lead Fever past Liberty 76-63

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- After a sluggish first half for both teams, Indiana picked up its play in the third quarter. When New York nearly got even early in the fourth, the Fever again ran away from the Liberty.

Tamika Catchings scored 22 points and Katie Douglas had 15 to lead Indiana to a 76-63 victory over New York on Thursday night. Shavonte Zellous added 11 points to help the Fever (16-8) win their fourth straight and sixth in seven games since the league's monthlong Olympic break.

''This was a game we needed to win,'' Catchings said. ''We came out really focused and determined to do a good job. I don't think we started the game off the way that we should've and are capable of. The third quarter in the first couple of minutes, we got the rhythm getting up and down the court.''

The Fever remained 2 1/2 games behind first-place Connecticut in the Eastern Conference with 10 games remaining. Atlanta, which has eight left, is four games behind Indiana.

''My goal for this team is to continue to get better and not really focus where we stand in the playoff (race),'' Catchings said. ''Just be concerned every single game with who we're playing. ... Coming back from the break into the second half we wanted to focus and get a sense of urgency and I feel we're starting to play with that. ... We have to continue to build off that.''

Cappie Pondexter and Essence Carson had 18 points each, and Nicole Powell added 12 for New York (9-16), which lost its third straight and fifth of its last seven.

Trailing by 10 about midway through the third quarter, the Liberty used a 12-3 run over a 4:10 stretch, capped by 3-pointers from Powell and Carson to cut the deficit to 43-42 with 1:15 left in the third.

Zellous made a 3 for Indiana 26 seconds later to push the margin back to four, and the Fever took a 49-46 lead into the fourth. Pondexter and Carson sandwiched layups for New York around a jumper by Jessica Davenport to pull the Liberty to 51-50 with 9:10 remaining in the game.

However, Indiana scored the next 12 points to regain a double-digit lead. Catchings had two free throws, Douglas made a 3-pointer, Davenport had two layups and Jeanette Pohlen added a 3 to push the Fever's lead to 63-50 with 6:10 to go.

The Liberty made one more run, scoring five consecutive points, capped by a layup from Carson to cut the deficit to 65-58 about 2 1/2 minutes later. But that was as close as they got.

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Catchings, Douglas lead Fever past Liberty 76-63