WNBA New York Liberty

New York Liberty snaps Comets six-game winning streak

July 12, 2005 - Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
New York Liberty News Release


* The New York Liberty snapped the Comets six-game winning streak, defeating Houston tonight, 68-65 in overtime. During their win streak, the Comets recorded victories over San Antonio twice, Seattle, Charlotte, Detroit and Indiana. The loss marks the end of the Comets longest winning streak since the 2002 season when they rolled off 10 consecutive victories (June 15 - July 9, 2002).

* The Comets suffered their first loss this season when Sheryl Swoopes makes at least one 3-point attempt. Houston is now 8-1 this season when Swoopes makes at least one 3-point attempt.

* Sheryl Swoopes and Michelle Snow combined for 44 of the Comets 65 total points, finishing with 68% of Houston's points.

* Michelle Snow tied a season and career high in points with 21. She previously hit this mark on May 29 vs. Indiana.

* The Comets outrebounded the Liberty 30-26. This is the sixth consecutive game where the Comets have won the battle of the glass.

* The Comets are now 8-2 when they outrebound their opponent.

* The Comets are now 1-1 in overtime for the season. Previously they defeated Indiana, 86-78, in double-overtime on May 29.

* The New York Liberty had all five starters in double-digit scoring (Robinson 13, Baranova 13, Wauters 12, Hammon 10, Johnson 10). The last time a Comets opponent had all five players in double-digit scoring was on July 6, 2004 against Detroit.

COMETS HEAD COACH VAN CHANCELLOR

(on the game) "There are always highs and lows in coaching. Lately, I've experienced some of the great highs, but tonight I experienced one of the great lows. What's been the staple of the Comets is that we don't turn the ball over, but tonight we turned it over 17 times and this was out of our starters. I thought we got a reprieve and went into overtime, but we just couldn't stop them. Right now, that was such a hard-fought game. I thought Vickie Johnson made some big-time shots, but they had 5 players in double figures. They only scored 58 points in regulation. We stopped them, but you can't turn the ball over 17 times against a good team."

(on the problems with the team tonight) "I thought we broke for the All-Star

game, but we didn't come back in here with an opportunity to go into 1st place. I didn't think we came in here totally concentrated and focused. We missed free throws, 10 out of 15, and we got the rebounds ripped out of our hands. We were up 5 with the ball (near the end of regulation) in our hands and we turned it over."

COMETS SHERYL SWOOPES

(on the game) "It doesn't hurt so much that we lost the game, it's how we lost. It seems as though everybody went somewhere during the All-Star break and it looked as though we had 3 days off. Our practice yesterday reflected that. We weren't ready to play this game today; we had no energy, everybody was flat. Unfortunately we couldn't get it done tonight and when we did, it was too late. They out-played us down the stretch. We had a lot riding on this game and now we have to go back to the drawing board and get back to what we were doing prior to the All-Star break."

(on Crystal Robinson's winning three-pointer) "Crystal is a known shooter. Our game plan we were going to double on their post players and try to contain Becky Hammon and not let her go for 20 points. For whatever reasons,

we lost sight of our game plan, but you can't look at one play and say that's what beat us because if we would have come out with a lot of intensity, the outcome would have been a different story."

COMETS MICHELLE SNOW

(on her season-high 21 point performance) "I would rather have zero points and win the game and gone into 1st place. It's all about a team sport..the individual game-highs will come when you play hard."

(on the game) "I think we played in spurts...we played hard, but sometimes we tried to force things to happen. We had too many turnovers, which really hurt us. Without them, we most definitely would have won this game. We did fight hard, brought it back to overtime and she (Crystal Johnson) made one heck of a shot at the end. We'll just refocus, come back, practice hard and continue to get better as a team."

NEW YORK LIBERTY HEAD COACH PAT COYLE

(on the play of the game) "What a great game for national TV to start of the second half of the season. I thought it was a great game, it was nip and tuck the whole way. Sheryl Swoopes and Michelle Snow are their two all-stars and you know in crunch time they are going to go to them and thankfully tonight in the second half and in over time we did a good job in guarding them. When we were up 5 we did not do a good job, but thankfully we went into overtime and had a chance to redeem ourselves."

(were you anticipating a double overtime) "No, no, we were getting the last shot and hopefully we were making this one. I thought it was a great game."

NEW YORK'S CRYSTAL ROBINSON

(on the last shot) "I think that statistics always win out. Eventually, I am going to start to shoot the ball better and tonight was a start, but I'm not by any means satisfied. I missed a couple of shots of shouldn't of missed, but eventually statistics say I am going to make them."

(on overtime) "We wanted to score, we didn't want to go into double overtime. Vickie Johnson told Ann Wauters if they come down, kick it out and I got a wide open shot."

(on the play of the game) "We stayed together and just battled. They missed

shots in the end and we made shots. I think Sheryl missed her last 4 or 5 shots and when you make her miss shots like that you have to score on the other end. You have to seize the opportunity."

NEW YORK'S VICKIE JOHNSON

(on the game) "We started off a little slow. We had two days off and you could tell, it was like running in mud. This is a great team and they have a great player in Sheryl Swoopes and great role players, but we just stuck together and dug down on the defensive end and tried to box out and I think that was the key for us. The main thing was for us to stay together and play together as a team and we had to get stops and make plays and that's what we did."

NEW YORK'S BECKY HAMMON

(on Canty's free throws) "I was thinking I hope she misses them. I really didn't want to give her a three point play, luckily that thing rolled out because I hit her pretty good. We should have closed it out in regulation, but we stuck together, they got up on us in overtime; we stuck together and kept fighting back. We have our own little Reggie Miller in Crystal Robinson. She's hit every kind of big shot, I've seen her hit a lot of them."

(on the game) "A big key for us was taking care of the ball in the second half. We didn't have a lot of turnovers and we kept coming at them. We stayed composed. We got a lot of people and a lot of shots tonight. We've got to keep taking it one game at a time now. We can't look too far ahead so we'll enjoy this win for a couple of hours and then we'll start working on Minnesota."

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