Dream surge in 4th, hold off Silver Stars
ATLANTA (AP) -- After her team struggled in the final minutes of two narrow losses, Lindsey Harding liked how the Atlanta Dream didn't give another game away.
"Even at the end of the game, our strongest suit is to run and get them on their heels," she said. "We did that in the second half, which led to us being successful."
Angel McCoughtry scored 16 points, Harding added 14 and the Atlanta Dream beat the San Antonio Silver Stars 60-57 on Friday night.
Sophia Young finished with 21 points and was the only player to score in double figures for the Silver Stars, who have lost two straight and four of five.
Atlanta overcame 23 turnovers, matching a season high, to snap a two-game skid.
Time expired in the final seconds on San Antonio guard Becky Hammon, who dribbled past Dream forward Sancho Lyttle inside the 3-point line and threw a bad pass to Shenise Johnson.
"Offensively, we were not clicking on all cylinders that we needed to," Hammon said. "Hopefully we can go back and learn from this. We have another one tomorrow, so we've got to put this behind us."
Silver Stars coach San Antonio coach Dan Hughes was ejected early in the second quarter in a disagreement over a foul that was called on Tully Bevilaqua.
Hughes yelled several times from close range at official Denise Brooks, who kicked him out of the game after Hughes left the sideline and approached her angrily at halfcourt.
"I didn't swear at the official," Hughes said. "I didn't do anything that I'm ashamed of."
Assistant coaches Steve Shuman and Vickie Johnson shared bench responsibilities for the rest of the game.
Hammon, who scored just seven points for the second straight game, gave San Antonio its biggest lead at five when her fast-break 3-pointer made it 45-40 in the final minute of the third.
Hughes didn't think his absence affected his players, even in the fourth quarter.
"No, we're veteran enough," he said. "Atlanta got it done late. We didn't get it done. It had nothing to do with me not being there. Atlanta made a few more plays than we did."
Yelena Leuchanka's layup with 2:12 remaining put the Dream up 59-53 to match Atlanta's biggest lead at six.
Atlanta went 0 for 7 on 3-point attempts. The Silver Stars went 4 for 17.
As poorly as her team shot from the perimeter, Dream coach Marynell Meadors was pleased that her team put behind those difficulties and focused harder on stopping San Antonio.
"In the last three of four minutes of the game, I thought we played excellent defense," Meadors said. "We went after loose balls, got some key rebounds, got blocked shots. You look at those and wonder which one of them was the game changer. I don't know which one it was, but they all pulled together to help us win."
The Silver Stars scored their last points on Shameka Christon's 18-foot jump shot near the right baseline with 10.9 seconds remaining.
McCoughtry, who missed an 18-footer with at the 27-second mark, hit one of two free throws to end the scoring with 8.5 left.
"Most teams in the final minutes want to take time to set up plays, but what gave us a boost was just getting the rebounds and running," Harding said. "We just ran, which allowed us to get up six points. We just played clock management and made them play catch-up."