Angel McCoughtry scored 33 points as the Atlanta Dream held off the Washington Mystics by a score of 86-79. The win is Atlanta's third consecutive win and has the team headed back in the right direction going into the All-Star break.
Washington put up a valiant effort in the loss. Crystal Langhorne scored a team-high 24 points for the Mystics while Marissa Coleman added 21. The game featured 16 lead changes and neither team took complete control until Lindsey Harding hit a fade away jumper to put Atlanta up 82-78 with just 40 seconds remaining. McCoughtry and Sandora Irvin would seal the win with four late free throws.
McCoughtry led all scorers with 33 points going 10-18 from the field. Harding finished with 14 points against her old club. Armintie Price netted 12 points and Erika de Souza finished with 10. Allison Bales and Sandora Irvin narrowly missed double doubles. Bales finished with nine points and 10 rebounds while Irvin finished with eight points and 11 rebounds.
Atlanta closes out the first half with a 6-9 record and 3.5 games behind the Connecticut Sun for first place in the Eastern Conference. The Dream have struggled with injuries and inconsistent play throughout the first half of the season but appear to taking steps to turn that around as they head to the second half.
The Dream will be back in action on July 26 when they travel to Tulsa to take on the Shock.
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