Aggressive Liberty defeat Shock, 90-74

Tina Charles. Photo by: Stacy Podelski/1495 Sports

The New York Liberty (6-11) came out aggressive and rewarded for their efforts in the 90-74 victory over the Tulsa Shock (6-10) in WNBA Action at Madison Square Garden on July 1.

Attacking on both ends of the floor New York, who won back-to-back games for the first time this season and are winners of three of the last four games. In addition the Liberty had a season-high 45 rebounds against the Shock and outrebounded Tulsa by a season-best 18 boards (45-27).

Leading the way on the offensive side of the board was Tina Charles who had a season-high 28 points, and earned her seventh double-double of the season with 14 boards. Cappie Pondexter recorded her team-leading seventh 20-point game of the season with 21 against the Tulsa Shock.

Anna Cruz matched her season high 17 points against the Tulsa Shock on a perfect 7-of-7 shooting from the field, as she combined with Pondexter each had their team-best sixth game with five or more assists.

Every single player on the team contributed with good energy and aggressive play, as the entire roster was able to find time on the floor, all finding the bucket at some point in the evening. There was also the continued trend of pretty passing and battling for possession of the basketball, which was a key for the victory tonight.

“I thought we had a lot of great efforts tonight… Tina [Charles] set the tone early in the game just doing what she’s supposed to do… scoring buckets for us. She was very engaged. We talked the last couple of days about other ways to attack, and how to be in attack mode throughout the game and she went out and did it,” said New York Liberty Head Coach Bill Laimbeer. “It was a super game by her but I also thought Cappie [Pondexter] played an engaged game as well. I thought her energy level was solid. She was pushing the ball, attacking, and had an all around quality effort. Anna, on top of that, played like she normally does – solid. She dogs the other team on defense. Between those three, they carried the day for us. But we had a lot of quality efforts from other players too, especially our bigs. We changed up our defense a little bit and I thought tonight it was a really good effort in showing what they’re capable of doing.”

New York will return to action on Sunday, July 6 to close out its five-game homestand, taking on the defending WNBA Champion Minnesota Lynx at 2:00 p.m.

1495 Sports is proud to bring the following postgame videos:

Head Coach Bill Laimbeer: