Fever beat Liberty to advance to Eastern Conference Finals

Katie Douglas scores on a layup against the Liberty. And yes, that's me sitting down.

The Indiana Fever zeroed in on the New York Liberty and made sure the visitors would leave town in defeat.

Led by leaders Tamika Catchings and Katie Douglas, the Fever knocked off the Liberty 72-62 in game 3 at Conseco Fieldhouse Monday. Up next will be the Atlanta Dream at home on Thursday, 7 pm.

Defense is always a big emphasis for Indiana and it showed tonight. I’ve said to people for the last week that this series would depend on Cappie Pondexter’s play for New York. Contain her and hold her under 30 points and the Fever can win. Well they did just that as she really was a non-factor.

Pondexter who has burned the Fever in the past, was held to just 11 points on 4-for-14 field goals.

“She’s had a super series,” Fever head coach Linn Dunn said. “She’s attacking, she’s scoring, she’s defending. You have to give Katie (Douglas) a lot of credit, her assignment was Cappie. When she was in the game, she was on Cappie, and I think she did a really good job of bothering her. She’s had a super playoffs.”

Team captain and 10-year veteran Tamika Catchings played with tremendous heart and passion as she always does. Saturday on the road, Catch was a bit off, finishing with playoff career lows two points on 1-of-8 shooting in a loss to force game three. She was much improved tonight, tallying 17 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists.

“For me I was really disappointed about my performance in Game 2,” Catchings said. “It’s not about having a great game for me as far as from a scoring standpoint. I think our team needs me to have a decent game.”

Erin Phillips who has played a big role at point guard for the team since Briann January went out with an injury for the season, led a few big charges and led Indiana with five steals. In the fourth quarter, she stole a critical inbounds pass, made a layup and was fouled.

Indiana is at their best when attacking the basket, forcing contact and getting to the free throw line. Tonight they outscored the Liberty 21-7 at the charity stripe. The Fever played overall sound defense and played with the intensity to advance to the next round against the Atlanta Dream.

The Dream pose many problems for the Fever, especially Angel McCoughtry. Atlanta dominated the season series 4-0 but a couple of those games were late and the Fever opted to rest players. Coach Dunn understands it’s going to be a physical and demanding series.

“Not sure we have played them at full strength any game this year.  We are not afraid ofAtlanta.  We are looking forward to playing them, especially here.”

Indiana hosts the Dream Thursday at 7 pm then are on the road at Atlanta on Sunday at 3 pm–both on ESPN2.

Indiana advances to the Eastern Conference Finals for the fourth time in its history, doing so in each of the odd numbered years (2005, 2007, 2009 & 2011) since 2005.

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