NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Plenette Pierson scored nine of her 22 points in the fourth quarter as the New York Liberty recovered after giving up nearly all of a 19-point lead in the third quarter and beat the Seattle Storm 66-57 on Tuesday night.
Cappie Pondexter had 13 points for New York (6-7), which had lost three straight and five of the last six.
Tina Thompson scored 13 points and Tanisha Wright added 12 for the Storm (5-8), losers of five of their last six. Seattle lost three of four on a road swing against Eastern Conference teams.
After Toni Young’s jumper in the opening possession of the third quarter extended the Liberty’s lead to 38-19, the Storm went on a 20-2 run to pull within a point on Alysha Clark’s layup with 2:58 remaining in the period.
Pondexter made two free throws 14 seconds later and Pierson followed with a bank shot less than 30 seconds later to push the lead back to five.
