NEW YORK — Cappie Pondexter had 28 points, five assists and two steals and the New York Liberty clinched a playoff spot with their eighth consecutive win, a 107-69 victory against the Phoenix Mercury on Saturday night.

Nicole Powell had a career-high seven three-pointers and 23 points for New York, which set a franchise high for points in a game.New York is one game behind Indiana in the Eastern Conference standings, and they face the Fever on Tuesday at home. They have not lost since July 25 against the Atlanta Dream.The Mercury lost their fourth in a row.Penny Taylor did not play for Phoenix because of a sprained right ankle. DeWanna Bonner started in her place and led the team with 18 points. Diana Taurasi had a season-low five points.The Mercury scored eight points in the fourth quarter and shot 32.8 percent for the game.

Pondexter Scores 19 Points To Lead Liberty To 80-68 Victory Over Sparks

AP) LOS ANGELES (AP) - Cappie Pondexter scored 19 points and the New York Liberty pulled away in the third quarter to beat the Los Angeles Sparks 80-68 Tuesday night for their third consecutive victory.

Noelle Quinn scored a career-high 24 points, topping her career-best for the second straight game, to lead the Sparks (3-11). They fell to 0-4 since leading scorer Candace Parker was lost for the season with a shoulder injury.

Marie Ferdinand-Harris, who replaced Parker in the starting lineup, added 12 points.

Pondexter continued the tear she’s been on for the last four games, maintaining her 20-point average over that stretch.

Former Sparks player Taj McWilliams-Franklin added 14 points and Plenette Pierson had 13 for the Liberty (7-7), who controlled the boards 35-22 and improved to 2-4 on the road.

New York led 44-35 at halftime, then used a 20-7 run to take its largest lead, 66-45, late in the third quarter. The Sparks chipped away at the deficit in the fourth, but never got closer than 12 points.

The Liberty closed the first half on an 18-9 run. McWilliams-Franklin scored six points and Essence Carson added four.

The Sparks shot 62 percent from the floor in the first quarter, when their biggest lead was five points.

WNBA: PONDEXTER LEADS LIBERTY TO WIN OVER SUN

NEW YORK (AP) — The Liberty did not want to start a three-game West Coast road trip after a loss.

So facing a 16-point deficit, they turned up the defensive pressure Sunday and rallied to beat the Connecticut Sun 77-68. It was the Liberty’s last home game before the July 10 WNBA All-Star game.

“This was big,” Liberty coach Anne Donovan said. “We recognize we need to play well in the Garden … our full-court defense looked pretty good tonight.”

The Liberty looked as if they were going to be run off their home court in the first quarter.

Liberty guard Cappie Pondexter scored 19 points. She said the team started to come together in a 92-78 win against Tulsa on Friday.

“Everybody’s doing their part,” Pondexter said. Especially on defense.

The Liberty held Connecticut to 22 second-half points to take control of the game.

New York’s Nicole Powell had 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Taj McWilliams-Franklin added 10 points.

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KNOW YOUR LIBERTY: CAPPIE PONDEXTER

Pondexter has won two WNBA titles in four seasons.

Welcome to SportsNation! On Wednesday, New York Liberty guard Cappie Pondexter stops by to chat about the WNBA season as well as winning the Eastern Conference Player of the Week award.

The Liberty finished the week 2-1, while Pondexter led the league in scoring (25.3 ppg), averaging 4.3 assists per game (third in the East), shooting 62 percent from the field. This is the sixth time Pondexter’s won the weekly award, last winning it during July 2009 when she won three straight.

Pondexter came to New York via a three-team trade in March. She had been the No. 2 overall pick of the Phoenix Mercury in the 2006 draft. Pondexter helped Phoenix win titles in 2007 and 2009, while earning WNBA Finals MVP in 2009. Fans can follow Pondexter on her website CappiePondexter.com or on Twitter: @cappa23.

FULL CHAT/STORY HERE

The New York Liberty’s Cappie Pondexter talks

about coming home to Chicago

WATCH VIDEO HERE

Speaking to the press during media day earlier this week, Cappie Pondexter was all smiles, thrilled over playing for the Liberty in New York this season.

And the Liberty couldn’t be happier to have Pondexter on board for an opportunity to help bring a WNBA title to the world’s greatest basketball city for the first time in franchise history.

Pondexter brings two rings, an Olympic gold medal and All-Star experience to a talented Liberty squad that fell short of a postseason berth following an Eastern Conference Finals appearance in 2008. She won’t guarantee a championship in her first season with the team, but winning is certainly her No. 1 priority.

“I don’t want to put us out there and say, ‘Yeah, we’re going to win a championship this year,’” Pondexter said. “No, we’re going to work hard and we’re going to compete for it. I can say that.”

Pondexter will have a very solid supporting cast around her as she hopes to become a team leader on and off the court this season. The Liberty had perhaps one of the most impressive offseason’s in WNBA history, acquiring Pondexter along with All-Stars and former champs Nicole Powell and Taj McWilliams-Franklin. New York also drafted Kalana Greene, who helped lead UConn to a National championship last month.

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Cappie Pondexter wants it to be known: she is not the same person she was when she played college ball at Rutgers.

The point guard who took the Madison Square Garden floor Sunday afternoon in her debut with the WNBA’s New York Liberty isn’t the one who used to be harangued by her college coach for being “too nice” to take over games, or the one who once avoided telling her teammates what to do lest she might be considered arrogant.

Basketball is still clearly first, second and third in Ms. Pondexter’s life. She has two WNBA titles and three All-Star appearances to her name. She’s won another two titles in the Russian Superleague where she plays in the off-seasons. She’s widely considered to be the best guard in the women’s game.

But the player who drove and pointed, directed her teammates and scored 22 points during the Liberty’s 85-82 win over the Chicago Sky Sunday hasn’t just come to the sports world’s biggest stage for a chance to show off her newfound assertiveness. The decision is also a practical one: She has ambitions for her life after basketball, too.

Last year, Ms. Pondexter and a friend launched 4 Season Style Management, a New York-based firm that offers private fashion and image coaching and consulting for professional athletes and other high-profile individuals.

Ms. Pondexter is not a household name in the way Los Angeles star Candace Parker is. Moving to New York from the relative obscurity of Phoenix should bring her more endorsement opportunities and a bigger pool of potential leads and clients for her burgeoning company.

FULL STORY HERE

Surely Cappie Pondexter has learned by now not to listen to the media or the fans or the bloggers. The only advice she needs to heed is her teammates’ and her coach’s. So hear this, Cappie: “When we were rolling and things were going, she thought she could give other people opportunities,” Liberty coach Anne Donovan said. “That’s not what I want from her. I want her to be aggressive all the time.”

As important as it was for the retooled Liberty to open the season with a win, Pondexter, the prize pickup of the off-season, must get the message that this is her team and her season.

Pondexter scored a team-high 22 points to go along with eight assists and five rebounds to lead the Liberty to an 85-82 win over the Chicago Sky at the Garden. But the Liberty won’t get to the WNBA finals with the former Rutgers star trying to be their distributor.

Donovan reminded Pondexter of that during a third-quarter timeout. Pondexter had helped the Liberty surge to a 68-52 lead by being aggressive offensively. With the game seemingly in hand, she got passive, and Chicago tied the score at 76-76 with three minutes left.

FULL STORY HERE