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Sky falls after scoring 1 point in fourth

NEWARK, N.J. — Cappie Pondexter scored 15 points to lead the New York Liberty past Chicago 59-49 Thursday, holding the Sky to a WNBA-record one point in the fourth quarter.

Nicole Powell added 7 of her 13 points in the fourth quarter as the Liberty outscored Chicago 16-1 in the final period. Essence Carson added 11 points for New York (12-8), which set the league record for fewest points allowed in a quarter.

Sylvia Fowles scored 11 points to lead Chicago (9-12), which missed all 10 shots from the field and had 9 turnovers in the fourth. The Sky, losers of four of their last five, finished 18 for 53 (34 percent) on field goals and had 22 turnovers.

The Liberty won for the eighth time in 11 games.

Trailing since the opening minutes of the game, New York opened the fourth quarter with a 14-0 run. Leilani Mitchell hit a 3-pointer and Alex Montgomery made a layup to tie the score at 48 with 7:47 to go in the fourth quarter. It was the first tie since 2-2.

Powell had a 3 with 5:16 left to give the Liberty their first lead of the game. The Sky had a turnover on the ensuing inbounds play and Powell’s layup extended New York’s advantage to 53-48.

Epiphanny Prince made 1 of 2 free throws with 2:23 remaining for Chicago’s only point of the quarter, pulling to 57-49. The Sky had missed seven field goals and had seven turnovers in the period to that point.

The third quarter, though, belonged to the Sky After Pondexter’s 3 pulled the Liberty to 28-26 in the opening minute of the third quarter, the Sky used a 10-2 run to pull away and take a double-digit lead. Snow had two jumpers during the spurt, and Dominique Canty’s layup with 4½ minutes left in the period extended the Sky’s lead to 38-28.

New York chipped away with a 13-4 run as six different players scored, with Plenette Pierson’s jumper cutting the deficit to 42-41 with 1:14 to go in the third. Eshaya Murphy had a layup and four free throws in the final minute of the quarter to give the Sky a 48-43 lead heading to the fourth.

The Sky led 26-23 at halftime. Pondexter’s potential tying 3-point heave from near midcourt was ruled after buzzer, and the call was upheld on video review.

The Liberty got off to a slow start, missing 14 of their first 18 shots. The Sky took advantage, using a 17 -6 run to take a 22-10 lead on Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton’s second basket of the second quarter with 7:34 remaining in the period.

New York recovered to make five of its next 11 shots in a 10-0 run to pull within two with about 2½ minutes left in the first half. Fowles’ layup with 2:22 to go ended Chicago’s scoring drought of more than 5 minutes.