Houston's Dawn Staley, left, defends Seattle's Sue Bird in the first half of the Comets' 75-67 loss. Seattle won the WNBA playoff opener Tuesday in Houston.
New York — Tully Bevilaqua showed why the Indiana Fever signed her away from the defending champions in the offseason.
Tamika Catchings had 19 points and 12 rebounds, and Bevilaqua added 14 points - including a key three-pointer with 1:33 left - to lead the Fever over the New York Liberty, 63-51, Tuesday night in the opener of their first-round WNBA playoff series.
"She has the ability to step her game up in big games," coach Brian Winters said. "She did that last year in Seattle when Sue Bird went out. She showed how good she was. When Sue couldn't play with her broken nose, she came in and played extremely well."
Deanna Jackson had nine points, including a pair of tiebreaking free throws with 2:59 remaining as Indiana closed the game with a 14-2 surge after the Liberty came back from a 10-point deficit.
Bevilaqua won the title with the Storm a year ago.
Storm 75, Comets 67
Houston - Lauren Jackson had 19 points and 13 rebounds to lead Seattle in the opener of its series with the Comets. Nursing a sore back, Jackson made six of 13 shots and helped the defending champions take a 1-0 lead back to Seattle for Thursday's Game 2. The Storm blew an 11-point lead in the second half, but recovered in time to stop the Comets, who are looking for their first playoff series victory since 2000.
Comments
LJWorld.com doesn’t necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full policy. Also, read about banned accounts and harassing comments.