Stewart scores 24 as Liberty beat Fever 91-80

ENT

Stewart scores 24 as Liberty beat Fever 91-80

2024-05-19 12:52 Last Updated At：13:00

NEW YORK (AP) — Breanna Stewart scored 24 points to lead a balanced New York offense as the Liberty beat Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever 91-80 on Saturday in front of a sellout crowd.

It was the second consecutive meeting between the teams who finished off a home and home set. Indiana lost on Thursday by 36 points, but was more competitive in this one thanks to a strong effort by Clark.

She finished with 22 points — the most in her young pro career — to go with eight assists and six rebounds. She also had eight turnovers.

The No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft came into the game averaging 14.5 points, 4.5 assists and 3.5 rebounds for the Fever.

This was Clark’s first time playing in New York as Iowa never played in the city nor did she when she was in high school or with her AAU team.

Clark brought out a bunch of sports celebrities to the game including Billie Jean King, Sue Bird, Megan Rapinoe, Michelle Wie West and Dawn Staley. Actor Jason Sudeikis, who went to a few of Clark’s games in college was also in attendance.

ACES 89, SPARKS 82

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Jackie Young and A’ja Wilson both scored 22 points and finished with double-doubles to power Las Vegas to a victory over Los Angeles.

Young sank 8 of 18 shots, including 4 of 9 from 3-point range, and added 11 assists and six rebounds for two-time defending champion Las Vegas (2-0). Wilson hit 9 of 20 shots with a 3-pointer, grabbed 10 rebounds and added three steals. Kelsey Plum made three 3-pointers and scored 17 with five assists and three steals. Alysha Clark scored 13 on 5-for-7 shooting with three 3s.

Dearica Hamby finished with 29 points to lead Los Angeles (0-2). Hamby hit 12 of 16 shots from the floor and 5 of 11 from the free-throw line. She added nine rebounds and three steals. Lexie Brown had 16 points. Kia Nurse and reserve Rickea Jackson contributed 13 points apiece.

Nurse scored half of LA’s 18 first-quarter points to lead the Sparks to a two-point lead. Nurse, who scored 23 points in LA’s 92-81 loss to the visiting Atlanta Dream in the season opener, sank all four of her shots with a 3-pointer.

Jackson hit 3-pointers on back-to-back trips down the court and Zia Cooke added a basket to give the Sparks a 32-25 lead with 4:37 left in the second quarter. Young, Clark, Kate Martin and Wilson all hit 3-pointers in a 15-0 run as the Aces took a 40-32 lead with 53 seconds left before halftime and never trailed again.

SKY 84, WINGS 73

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Diamond DeShields led a balanced attack with 16 points and Chicago dominated the fourth quarter to defeat Dallas to split the season-opening series.

Chicago outscored Dallas 28-11 in the fourth quarter to erase an eight-point deficit, getting contributions from a number of players while Arike Ogunbowale had nine of the 11 Wings’ points.

Marina Mabrey, who had all 14 of her points in the second half, got the Sky going with a 3-pointer in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter. Elizabeth Williams had back-to-back baskets before Angel Reese had a three-point play for a 67-65 Chicago lead with 6:29 to play.

Reese finished a 14-0 run that made it 72-65 with 4 1/2 minutes left. Ogunbowale had the next nine points for Dallas but Chicago continued to pull away.

On Wednesday in the season opener Ogunbowale scored 14 of her 25 points in the fourth quarter as the Wings, down two with 3:16 to play, scored 14-straight points down the stretch to win 87-79. In that game, Dallas had a 60-42 advantage in points in the paints but in the rematch it was 28-24 for the Sky.

MERCURY 88, DREAM 85

PHOENIX (AP) — Kahleah Copper scored a career-high 38 points and combined with Sophie Cunningham for the last 16 points as Phoenix recovered after losing a 10-point fourth-quarter lead to beat Atlanta.

Cheyenne Parker-Tyus had 11 points and Allisha Gray 10 in the fourth quarter as the Dream, down 70-60 with 8:43 to play, charged back to lead 81-74 at the 4:11 mark. A layup by Parker-Tyus produced Atlanta’s first lead of the game at 73-72.

Cunningham answered with a 3-pointer and Copper’s four free throws pulled the Mercury within 83-81 with 1 1/2 minutes to play. Following an offensive foul on Tina Charles, Copper found Cunningham on the left side for a 3-pointer and the lead with 1:11 to play. Natasha Cloud then blocked a Rhyne Howard attempt and Copper converted that into a layup for an 86-83 lead at 28.1 seconds.

Parker-Tyus made it a one-point game again but Copper answered and Howard missed a a 3-point try for the tie.

Diana Taurasi had 15 points and Cunningham 10 for the Mercury (1-1), who gave Nate Tibbetts his first win in the WNBA.

Ohtani and Betts lead Dodgers to latest blowout of Mets for 3-1 lead in lopsided NLCS

2024-10-18 12:27 Last Updated At：12:30

NEW YORK (AP) — Shohei Ohtani hit a leadoff homer and scored four times, Mookie Betts also went deep and drove in four runs, and the Los Angeles Dodgers routed the New York Mets 10-2 on Thursday night for a 3-1 lead in their lopsided National League Championship Series.

Betts had a two-run homer and a two-run double among his four hits. Max Muncy extended his streak of reaching base safely to 12 plate appearances, a postseason record, and the Dodgers moved within one win of their 25th pennant — most in NL history.

Game 5 is Friday at Citi Field, with Jack Flaherty expected to pitch for Los Angeles looking to put his hometown team in the World Series.

David Peterson was set to make his first playoff start for New York after pitching well out of the bullpen this postseason.

“Peterson is fully rested. Last time he pitched was four days ago. So I’m anticipating him making a regular start,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said.

Surprise cleanup batter Tommy Edman had three RBIs, including a tiebreaking double off starter Jose Quintana with two outs in the third inning. Kiké Hernández followed with an RBI single that made it 3-1.

Betts broke open the game, greeting reliever Jose Buttó with a two-run double in the fourth and then right-hander Phil Maton with a two-run homer in the sixth.

Both big hits followed walks to Ohtani, handed three straight free passes after homering on consecutive swings going back to Game 3.

“Not only Ohtani, you have to take care of the other guys behind him,” Mendoza said. “When he goes out there first at-bat of the game and hits it like that, obviously, it’s a good feeling for them. We knew that wasn’t going to beat us, but we couldn’t just stop it.”

Betts gave a huge fist pump between second and third as he rounded the bases following his third homer of these playoffs.

Mark Vientos provided a rare highlight for New York, hitting his fourth postseason homer in the first inning off $325 million rookie Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

But the Mets, who were 14-2 in their past 16 games at Citi Field when they arrived back home Wednesday, were blown out on their own turf for the second successive night.

New York has been outscored 30-9 in the series, including 9-0 in the opener and 8-0 in Game 3.

“You’ve got to give those guys credit. That’s a deep lineup,” Mendoza said. “And whether (our starters) are feeling it or not, we haven’t executed and we haven’t got length from them.”

The latest flop after a thrilling comeback ride this far into October hushed a sellout crowd of 43,882 and left Citi Field eerily quiet in the late innings — and just about as empty as April.

Evan Phillips earned the win with 1 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of Yamamoto.

Trailing 7-2, the staggering Mets had a chance to get back in the game when they loaded the bases with nobody out in the sixth. But then Phillips got two outs and Blake Treinen retired pinch-hitter Jesse Winker on a fly to the right-field warning track.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Dodgers: All-Star 1B Freddie Freeman missed his second game of the playoffs. Freeman has been playing with a badly sprained and swollen right ankle throughout the postseason.

Mets: Slumping catcher Francisco Alvarez hobbled to first base in pain after getting drilled by Yamamoto's 91 mph sinker to begin the fifth. He was pulled for a pinch hitter with the bases loaded in the sixth.

UP NEXT

Acquired from Detroit at the July 30 trade deadline, Flaherty went 6-2 with a 3.58 ERA in 10 regular-season starts for the Dodgers and finished 13-7 with a 3.17 ERA overall. He allowed two hits over seven innings to win the NLCS opener 9-0.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb