![]() ![]() We did a really good job on their half-court offense. That’s why we were disappointing in our fouling. … They like to run and we made it very difficult for them. “I’d like to finish the game better, but we played well,” Reeve said. The spurt was part of a 29-8 Minnesota run that put the Lynx up by 23 late in the opening half. Minnesota is 141-6 since 2011 when holding an opponent under 40-percent shooting.īridget Carleton came off the bench to provide an early lift, scoring eight points in a 14-2 Lynx run for a 32-18 lead early in the second quarter. Minnesota shot 55.6 percent from the field Atlanta 38.6 percent. Moriah Jefferson scored 14 and added seven assists, although she turned the ball over eight times. “She’s better when she has movement, so I was setting screens for her.”īack in the starting lineup after missing one game with a right knee injury, Fowles was strong inside with 12 points and 14 rebounds, her 11th double-double this season and 99th in a Lynx uniform. “We know she can get to the rim, but just telling her to slow down, making sure she knows she don’t have to do everything on her own,” Fowles said. Powers finished with a game-high 25 points as the Lynx ended a three-game slide. “Sylvia (Fowles) gave me a few picks that had me wide open.” ![]() “Hayes hit a 3-pointer in the corner and kind of stared at me and I kind of felt like, ‘OK, hold on.’ I don’t know who she thinks she is, and then I just kind of went off,” Powers said. She will be relied upon once again next year to help lead the Lynx offense. Powers averaged a team-high-tying 14.4 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.2 steals over 26.9 minutes per game in her seventh WNBA season. With the lead cut to six, Powers scored on a jumper, a 3-pointer and another jumper in a 76-second span to lift the lead to 13 with 4:02 to play. Powers played nearly every game for the Lynx in 2022 after having her seasons cut short due to injuries the previous two years. “They started playing some zone and got a little energy off of that, but we were able to grab the momentum back with Aerial Powers’ clutch, clutch offense.” Powers strengths are scoring (she is Michigan State’s all-time leading scorer and averaged 18.9 points a game in three seasons), rebounding, and being a physical presence on the floor.“I just didn’t think we brought the energy necessary to close the game out in a really positive way,” coach Cheryl Reeve said. Instead, she says she worked on form shooting, putting up 100 to 150 form shooting shots where she wasn’t allowed to jump. She didn’t want to rush back to the court too quickly. ![]() While recovering from her injury, she told herself to stay patient but mentally engaged. Just giving everything I have when I’m out there.” “Coming in off the bench and providing defensively and offensively. “Right now, just giving all I got,” Powers continues. I think all of that was pretty hard when I first came to the team.” “It’s just different and learning the system too, what coach wants from us and the plays. “Just trying to learn your teammates on and off the court, especially on the court, who likes to do what, who likes to pick-and-roll, who likes to pick-and-pop,” she says. It hasn’t been an easy transition, but Powers is starting to feel more comfortable in Thibault’s system. In the team’s most recent game, a 102-59 victory over the Connecticut Sun, she tallied 13 points, four steals, and two rebounds in 20 minutes of play. She missed the first two games of the regular season, but returned on June 5 to score nine points in the Mystics’ 96-75 win over the Atlanta Dream.īetween June 9 and June 14, Powers averaged 16 points in three games. Powers’ first full season with the Mystics got off to a slow start when she injured her left gluteal muscle in the team’s preseason game against the Minnesota Lynx. When she came to the start of the training camp, every shot was on the front rim. I think she’s worked hard to get her balance back in her shooting. I think the coaches have given her confidence, and she doesn’t necessarily lack for confidence in the first place. “I think that her teammates give her confidence. “I think she’s got her confidence back,” Thibault told City Paper last month. This season, the 25-year-old Detroit native who played at Michigan State is becoming the player Thibault imagined she could be. Powers averaged just 6.1 points and 2.7 rebounds in 12.7 minutes per game as the Mystics reached the WNBA Finals. Last season, the Mystics acquired her in a mid-season trade with the Wings. The Dallas Wings ended up selecting Powers with the fifth overall pick, and the Mystics took Kahleah Copper with the seventh pick out of Rutgers, but Thibault kept his eyes on Powers. She had all the tools he was looking for in a forward coming out of college. Washington Mystics head coach Mike Thibault doesn’t hide the fact that Aerial Powers was one of the players he wanted to selectin the 2016 WNBA Draft. ![]()
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