One Giant Leap For Dream-kind In Atlanta

By James Bowman: SPM GA Writer
Posted Sunday, July 6, 2008

ATLANTA – When the Atlanta Dream won its first game in franchise history, after opening with 17 straight losses, restraint was out the door.

Rookie Tamera Young was running out into the crowd. Betty Lennox was smiling. Coach Marynell Meadors added to the chaos with a hand-held air horn.

"We’ve got the gorilla, the gorilla, and the gorilla off our backs right now. Tonight, we were not going to be denied.”

For the Atlanta Dream and the 8,468 fans at Philips Arena Saturday, the 91-84 win over the Chicago Sky meant a celebration that was two parts party and one part relief; the longest losing streak in Women’s National Basketball Association history was dead.

“Going through 17 losses in a row is really tough,” Meadors said, after the game. “So we’ve got the gorilla, the gorilla, and the gorilla off our backs right now. Tonight, we were not going to be denied.”

The Dream, of course, could do nothing easy. Atlanta turned the ball over seven times in the first quarter and Chicago converted those turnovers into 10 points. The Sky led 19-6 at one time and Meadors turned to the bench for help. Atlanta’s reserves went on an 8-0 run, sparked by six points from Iziane Castro-Marques to finish the quarter down 21-17.

Kristin Haynie, who had six assists in the second quarter alone, made the 29 points the Dream scored in the second quarter look easy. Jennifer Lacy scored 11 points in the frame, Ann Strother added eight, and the Dream hit four 3-pointers as Atlanta blew past the Sky to take a 46-35 lead at the half.

In the third quarter, the Dream found themselves in a hole of their own making. Before three minutes had even passed, the Dream had committed four team fouls, three coming within seconds of each other. The Dream had no fouls to give, and the Sky went 11-for-16 from the free-throw line in the third quarter alone. Atlanta’s lead had been erased, and the Sky led by two, 66-64, with one quarter to play.

The lead teeter-tottered between the two teams throughout the fourth. With the Dream leading 82-81, a field goal by Ivory Latta and a pair of free throws from Tamera Young gave the Dream a five-point lead with 54.6 seconds to go -- but Young was called for a backcourt violation and Jia Perkins of the Sky hit from 23 feet to close the Dream lead to 86-84 with 20.7 seconds left.

But the Sky were over the limit and had no fouls to give. The Dream hit five of their next eight free throws to clinch their first-ever victory.

Meadors recounted her emotions near the end of the game.

“The clock wasn’t ticking fast enough,” she said. “I told [Official] Eric Brewton that we hadn’t won a game in 17 games -- I’m not going back to my box!”

The Dream had six players in double figures, led by Latta and Lacy, with 18 points each. Lacy’s 18 matched a career high. Haynie had a double-double with 11 points and 11 assists, a career highs.
“Everybody contributed,” Lacy said. “Everybody came in and did something, and if you didn’t come in, you were on the bench cheering us on. It was a total, total team effort.”

Latta had her own plans for celebration beyond reuniting with her parents and family, who were in Atlanta.

“I think I’m going to go home and go to sleep tonight, and sleep on this good old win,” she said.

Perkins led Chicago with 24 points, followed by Candice Dupree with 19.

“We didn’t want to be the first team to lose to them,” the Sky’s Dominique Canty said. “I don’t think we took them for granted. They played hard the entire game and they deserved to win.”

Alison Bales, who had been acquired from the Indiana Fever the day before, scored three points and had five rebounds in her seventeen minutes.

“I only had about half an hour to learn the plays, on paper,” said Bales, “So I still haven’t practiced them on the court. I just went right in to the game and started running them.”

The Atlanta Dream will begin a six-game road trip on July 9th against the Minnesota Lynx at the Target Center in Minneapolis. The Chicago Sky return home to face the San Antonio Silver Stars on July 10th at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago.