Brunson, Moore Lead Lynx Over Fever 80-70
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- If the Minnesota Lynx were going to snap Indiana's seven-game winning streak, they knew they were going to have to do something different in the second half.
The Lynx took a slim one-point lead into halftime before stepping up the defensive pressure in the second half to beat the Fever 80-70 on Friday night.
Rebekkah Brunson scored 20 points and Maya Moore added 18 to lead the Lynx.
Tamika Catchings scored 22 points and Jessica Davenport had 13 for the Fever, who remain two games ahead of New York atop the Eastern Conference.
"The biggest thing for us was that we finally locked down and defended in the second half," said Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve. "We were disappointed with how well we let the Fever move the basketball, we thought they really had their wheels rolling."
The Fever never led by more than four points and didn't allow a double-digit lead until the second half.
"Minnesota did a super job on us defensively," Fever coach Lin Dunn said. "We did not match their intensity. They disrupted what we were trying to do."
The Fever shot just 28 percent in the second half and were held to 3-of-15 shooting from 3-point range.
Minnesota led by as much as five points in the third quarter before falling behind at one point when the Fever took a three-point lead late in the third, their biggest lead of the second half.
It didn't last long. Brunson scored under the basket and Moore made a 3-pointer and a long jumper to give Minnesota a 55-51 lead.
Douglas hit a 3-pointer to pull within a point, but Minnesota's Monica Wright drove to the basket and Jessica Adair hit a jumper for a five-point lead at the end of the quarter.
"It was a game of runs," said Moore, who scored 21 points in the Fever's 78-75 win over the Lynx on June 26. "We came out at the start of the game pretty well," Moore said. "We knew it was going to be tough, but we made the adjustment."
The Fever missed five shots and Minnesota forced three turnovers within the first 3:19 of the third quarter and the Lynx jumped to a nine-point lead by the 4:47 mark in the fourth.
Indiana hadn't lost since a June 19 overtime defeat to the Phoenix Mercury.
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