Kayla McBride scored a team-high 15 points while Napheesa Collier and Bridget Carleton chipped in 14 apiece, leading the Minnesota Lynx to a 76-64 win over the Atlanta Dream on Tuesday in College Park, Ga.
Courtney Williams added 12 points, seven rebounds and seven assists for the Lynx (27-9), who won their fourth straight.
Atlanta (12-24) was led by Allisha Gray’s 17 points, followed by Rhyne Howard’s 14. Tina Charles tallied 13 points and a game-high 14 rebounds for the Dream, who lost their second in a row.
After trailing by three at halftime, Atlanta scored the first four points of the second half, and a pair of Gray free throws gave the Dream their first lead since the 4:39 mark of the first quarter.
After Howard tied the game at 50 with a triple, Minnesota responded with a 10-2 run, stamped by Myisha Hines-Allen’s layup with 1:13 left in the third quarter. Howard stopped the bleeding with a mid-range jumper, but McBride’s 3-pointer on the next possession put Minnesota up 63-54 — a lead it held entering the fourth quarter.
From there, the Lynx’s lead ballooned to 68-56 on Collier’s 8-footer with 8:26 left. A pair of free throws from Gray cut Minnesota’s lead to 68-60 with 7:01 remaining, but Alanna Smith’s triple on the ensuing possession pushed the Lynx’s lead back to double digits. Carleton’s 3-pointer then extended Minnesota’s advantage to 74-60 at the 3:49 mark, icing the game for the Lynx.
In the first quarter, Atlanta’s early 6-4 lead was answered with an 11-3 Minnesota run that was capped by Smith’s layup at the 1:59 mark of the frame.
After trailing 22-14 a minute into the second quarter, the Dream cut their deficit to one, 22-21, with 7:53 left in the first half thanks to Maya Caldwell’s trey and back-to-back 2-pointers from Howard and Charles.
Gray’s buzzer-beating layup pulled Atlanta within 41-38 at the break. Carleton led all scorers with 11 points in the first half.
–Field Level Media
