ATLANTA, Ga—The Los Angeles Sparks being the defending champs did not seem to affect the Atlanta Dream the entire night. Sticking close in points throughout the nail-biting game, the Dream were able to put the Sparks away, 75-73.
Putting on show, Tiffany Hayes led the Dream in points with 24 points.
“I just finished the shots I was supposed to finish,” said Hayes. “My teammates were finding the open player, if it was me I was knocking it down.”
Bria Holmes and Sancho Lyttle also contributed with 11 points a piece.
On the opposing side, Alana Beard led the Sparks with a career-high of 25 points, and Nneka Ogwumike put up 15 points for her team as well, but it was not enough to pull out a win.
Before the game, Holmes made it clear that “[they] are not going to let anyone come in their house and take advantage”. The Dream responded well to this by shutting down Los Angeles’ star player, Candace Parker, holding her to only 4 points.
Los Angeles had a chance to send the game into overtime when Chelsea Gray had an opportunity of three free throws. With 6.8 seconds left, she missed the third one on purpose for another teammate to grab and put the rebound back up; however, this did not work in their favor.
Hayes was able to grab and secure the ball as the time wind down confirming their victory.
The Atlanta Dream anticipate carrying this same momentum into Wednesday’s game against the San Antonio Stars at the McCamish Pavilion at 11:30am.
Stay in tuned with R3Play for more action on the WNBA and The Atlanta Dream this season!
Photo Credit: Victoria Johnson @vicxmarie