WNBA New York Liberty

Sugar Rodgers' Career High 23 Points Lead New York Liberty Past Los Angeles, 79-70

June 28, 2015 - Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
New York Liberty News Release


NEW YORK, N.Y. - JUNE 28, 2015 - Behind a career-high 23 points from Sugar Rodgers the Liberty outlasted the Los Angeles Sparks, 79-70, on Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.

Rodgers scored seven of her points in the fourth quarter, which included a huge 3-point basket with fewer than five minutes to play to break a 63-63 tie and spark what turned into a game-changing 9-1 New York run.

A few minutes of the first quarter non-withstanding, New York (5-4) had led the entire game until the Sparks (0-7) started the final period on a 6-2 run, knotting things up at 59-59 on a Kristi Tolliver 3-pointer.

Tolliver, who was making her season debut, finished with a game-high 30 points, the most for an individual against the Liberty this season.

Los Angeles would tie the game three times in the fourth quarter, but each time the Liberty was able to answer. First it was Tina Charles, burying a 19-footer, two of her 16 points to go along with a team-high nine rebounds.

Following another Tolliver bucket, she scored LA's first eight points in the fourth, Tanisha Wright calmly hit a mid-range jumper, then Nneka Ogwumike drove to the basket to make it 63-63.

Neither team scored for the next two minutes, then Rodgers came up huge, drilling a 3-pointer from the left side, her third triple of the day, matching a career-high from deep and propelling New York to what would be a nine-point win.

From there Charles took over, scoring on the break with a feed from Wright to push the Liberty cushion back to five, and converting a six-foot bank shot at 3:17 to make it 70-64

Rodgers continued her hot streak, scoring in double figures for the fourth-straight game, and since being inserted into the starting lineup three games ago, is averaging 17.3 ppg while shooting 50.0 percent (15-of-30) from the field.

She also started fast, netting eight points in the first quarter to lead New York to a 23-22 lead through 10 minutes of play.

After trailing 9-5 early on, the Liberty used an 8-0 run, powered by five points from Rodgers, to take a lead that they never fully relinquished. New York hit eight of its first 11 shots in the game and were 8-of-12 from the field in the first quarter, but Los Angeles shot 4-of-8 from 3-point range to stay close.

From there, New York's lead never expanded past five points until that critical run late in the fourth as the Liberty outscored the Sparks 16-7 over the final 4:33.

New York was outrebounded 33-31, but continued its dominance in interior scoring, where it held a 32-18 advantage in the paint.

Ogwumike recorded a double-double for Los Angeles, with 13 points and 16 rebounds, but was just 2-of-12 from the field.

New York returns to action on Tuesday, June 30, when it heads to the Windy City to face the Chicago Sky. The matchup will be nationally televised on ESPN2, with tipoff coming at 8 p.m. (ET).

New York Liberty NotesRodgers' 23 points are the most for a Liberty player this season.Kristi Toliver had a career high 30 points - most points by a player against the Liberty this season.Kiah Stokes had 4 blocks for the second-consecutive game, and now has 19 blocks on the season.Tanisha Wright's 7 assists are the most by a Liberty player this season.After struggling with a season-high 26 turnovers at Tulsa, New York posted its fewest turnovers of the season with 9.New York, which leads the league in defensive field goal percentage, held Los Angeles to just 36.7 percent shooting, the seventh team to fail to shoot 40.0 percent of better from the field against the Liberty this year.The Liberty improved to 5-0 this season when holding a lead heding into the fourth quarter.New York is now 4-2 at Madison Square Garden this season.It was the first time New York outscored an opponent in the second half (38-32) since its win over Phoenix on June 11.

New York Liberty Quotes

Head Coach Bill Laimbeer

On today's game

"They (New York Liberty) did their job. When we move the ball we're good. We had some very pretty plays when we shared the ball. That's how you're supposed to play basketball. Defensively, we're a solid defensive ball club. Right now, we are fun to watch. We are 5-4 and have a chance to go 6-4. This game was a good measuring stick for us. Everybody in the league is fighting for position. It's about who beats who head-to-head now.

On Sugar Rodgers performance

"No one is riding the Sugar (Rodgers) train harder than I am right now. She's found it so far, since she's started for three games. We always knew she had the talent. Defensive-wise she's solid. Offensively, all she needed was for it was to click. Right now it's clicking. You see it on the floor. She's a big asset for us.

Tanisha Wright

On today's win

"It was just a good team win for us. I think we did a good job down the stretch of executing and making some plays. A couple of people made some plays that really put us over the hump."

On today's crowd

"The crowd was good today for it to be a Sunday game. Anytime you're at home you have a different comfort level, so we appreciate the fans coming out and really supporting us and going through this with us. They are really sticking it out, so it's nice to see."

Sugar Rodgers

Her shooting performance today

"It's just believing in yourself. Earlier in the season I started off kind of rocky and great shooters keep shooting. That's what I did today, I just kept shooting."

On the team's focus through the rest of the season

"I think we can continue to play like we did tonight. Once Piph

gets back it will be all about building the team chemistry. Long term I think we will be fine."

Los Angeles Sparks Quotes

Head Coach Brian Agler

On this today's game

"I thought we put ourselves in position (to win), even there for about a minute and a half after that five minute mark; where we were still right there and had some opportunities but, just didn't take advantage of them. To do that you have to have a series of stops and be really efficient on the offensive end. That's where we lapses tonight, and we've had those in the past. We are still getting better and we're starting to get people back. Next week and the week after we'll have more depth on the bench which I think will help us because we'll keep fresher bodies out there. For us to have a high level of success in this league we have to come through in those tight parts of the game."

On Kristi Toliver' s game performance

"She (Kristi Toliver) played great offensively. We've had several meetings with her and she's a very smart basketball player so she picked things up quickly. She has good chemistry with Nneka (Ogwumike) and Jantel (Lavender) so they played off each other pretty well. Now we'll get a chance to really get her up to speed on what we're doing defensively and get her up to speed on more depth of our offense. She had a fantastic offensive night."

On the team as a whole

"We've got a great group of people. We're going through some growing pains. Out of our control we've been put in a tough situation with injuries and people not being here. We've had some young players step up and do well. We've had some veterans step up and do well. I'm proud of that. We've got to continuously get better and better."

Nneka Ogwumike

On team's overall 0-7 record

"We are working through a period of adversity right now. We are slowly getting better but at this point it is about closing (games) out.

On the effect injuries are having on the team

"As we slowly get healthy and get some of our pieces back we will continue to get better. Coach (Brian Agler) has done a good job of having us focus on who is here and able to play."

Kristi Toliver

On adjusting to getting back with the team

"It's tough when you have limited practice time but I'm a basketball player. I just wanted to get out there make plays, get people involved and stay aggressive."

On the difficulty of defending the Liberty

"Tina (Charles) is the focal point defensively for any team that comes in to play the (New York) Liberty. When you have a post player like her it draws your attention, which leaves players with space on the outside. Tonight Sugar (Rodgers) did a good job of hitting shots and they all played pretty well."

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