Fever defeat Dream 75-64 to advance to WNBA East Finals

Cliff October 3, 2012 0

By CLIFF BRUNT
ISL Editor

INDIANAPOLIS — Tamika Catchings was 20 minutes away from more disappointment.

Her teammates made sure she didn’t have to worry.

Katie Douglas scored 24 points, Erlana Larkins had 16 points and 20 rebounds and Briann January scored 16 points to help Catchings’ Indiana Fever beat the Atlanta Dream 75-64 on Tuesday night and advance to the Eastern Conference finals.

Catchings has done almost everything in her career. She’s won three Olympic gold medals, is a five-time WNBA defensive player of the year and was last year’s league MVP.

She’s never won a WNBA championship, something she has taken personally over the years. After Atlanta’s Angel McCoughtry drained a 24-footer to tie the decisive Game 3 at halftime, the pressure was on.

When they tied it at halftime, we came in here and it was like, ˜Look. We’re not going to let this go,’ Catchings said. ˜We’ve got 20 minutes to play Fever basketball.’

And they did. Indiana held the Dream to 12-for-39 shooting in the second half. McCoughtry, the WNBA’s leading scorer during the regular season, scored two points on 1-for-9 shooting after the break and finished with 16 points.

Catchings made her presence felt in the third quarter, scoring seven of Indy’s 15 points to put the Fever in position to claim the series. Unlike Sunday’s win in Atlanta, when Catchings scored 18 of her 25 points in the fourth quarter, her teammates carried the scoring load down the stretch. January scored seven points and Douglas scored six in the final 10 minutes.

Catchings grabbed six rebounds in the fourth quarter, three of them valuable offensive boards that gave Indiana extra possessions and took valuable time off the clock as Atlanta scrambled to come back. She finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

As important as Catchings and Douglas were, January and Larkins had as much to do with the Fever advancing. It was the kind of support Catchings has sought her entire legendary 11-year WNBA career.

Briann January was an X-factor, just like Erlana was, Lindsey Harding, who led Atlanta with 17 points, said. People focus in on Katie and Tamika and people like Erlana and Briann are able to step up and help their team.

Larkins and Catchings set the tone with their responses to Atlanta’s aggressive play.

I think when you’ve got one person who’s getting down there and getting beat up, you’ve got, from one person all the way down to 11, everybody who’s getting on the court is getting a little cheap shot here and there, it kind of fires you up a little bit, Catchings said.

Now, the Fever play Connecticut and league MVP Tina Charles. Douglas said the Fever can beat the Sun if they don’t rely too much on her shooting and Catchings’ overall scoring.

I think Tamika and I definitely realized we can’t win it by ourselves and we need each person. I think as long as we stay balanced, we will be a hard team to beat.

PLAYOFF RALLY: A Fever Playoff Rally will go from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. Wednesday at Nora Kroger, 1365 E. 86th St. in Indianapolis.