Minneapolis ? Becky Hammon picked the right spot to push her team to a third straight road victory.

Hammon scored 11 of her 13 points in the final five minutes, leading the New York Liberty past the Minnesota Lynx, 59-47, Sunday night.

“I was just choosing my times, and it happened to be at the end of the game,” Hammon said. “This was the fourth game in a row on the road, and we were tired. I think we just had to fight through it.”

Elena Baranova added 12 points and Crystal Robinson 11 for the Liberty, who finished their road trip 3-1 and took over sole possession of third place in the Eastern Conference. New York (11-9) has won five straight in Minnesota.

“We just talked about perseverance,” head coach Pat Coyle said after watching her team play sluggishly in the first half. “The second half was much better basketball.”

Nicole Ohlde scored 17 points for the Lynx (11-10), who fell into fifth place in the Western Conference. Vanessa Hayden added 13, but leading scorer Katie Smith was held to just five points on 2-of-12 shooting.

Minnesota, which was 0-for-13 on three-pointers, lost for just the third time in 11 home games.

“You’d love to give credit to their defense, but I can’t say it was all their defense,” head coach Suzie McConnell Serio said. “We missed a lot of open shots.”

Monarchs 91, Shock 51

Sacramento, Calif. – Nicole Powell made five three-pointers and finished with a career-high 25 points, leading Sacramento to its most lopsided victory.

The 40-point decision is the fourth-largest margin of victory in WNBA history and surpassed the Monarchs’ team record 39-point victory over Minnesota (91-52) on July 3, 2001.

The largest margin in league history was Houston’s 45-point win over Washington (110-65) in August 1998.

It was the long-range shooting of Powell that led Sacramento to its highest scoring total of the season. She scored the Monarchs’ first eight points and started the second half with a three-pointer, igniting a 17-2 run in the first five minutes that extended Sacramento’s lead to 50-29.

Powell shot 10-for-17 and finished with four rebounds and three steals, helping Sacramento snap a two-game losing streak and move two games ahead of Houston in the Western Conference.