NEW YORK, June 12 (Xinhua) -- The New York Liberty clinched their second consecutive win in the WNBA new season here on Wednesday night, beating the Minnesota Lynx 75-69.
The shinning star of the game was Liberty's Kia Nurse who scored the game high 26 points in 40 minutes of play.
Speaking highly of Nurse, Liberty coach Katie Smith said after the game, "Her offense, her defense, she's able to function even when she's a bit tired so I think she just had a monster game and came up really big."
The Liberty had three more players score double figures including small forward Asia Durr (career-high, 20), center Amanda Zahui B (season-high, 15), power forward Tina Charles (12).
Point guard Brittany Boyd was the only other Liberty player to score in the game, adding two points.
The Liberty, who finished 11th last season, lost all the three encounters in 2018 with the Lynx, who advanced to the playoffs, but they took a revenge tonight.
The Liberty led by as much as 15 points in the first half with a 14-2 run during the end of the first quarter and beginning of the second quarter. They never looked back in the second half.
The Lynx shot only 29.3 percent (12-41) from the field in the first half, despite 57.1 percent (16-28) in the second half.
Coach Smith said, "Happy with the win. Energy was good again. Too many turnovers again, we kinda kept them in the ball game a little tighter than we needed to but making plays at the end."
Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said, "I wish we had made some more shots, but you can't really hang your head on that on the road. You have to defend well enough to cover for yourself. We gave up too many points in the paint."
The Liberty will travel to Las Vegas on Thursday to face the Aces on Friday.